108 STORIES OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS 



mysterious and strange. I don't wonder that 

 the Hummingbird thought them Wabeno's tricks, 

 but does he not know that as a magician Wabeno 

 is a bungler compared to Heart of Nature ? 



" This is our life history briefly told : the females 

 of our family lay their eggs one by one on a leaf. 

 After some days a caterpillar is hatched. It is 

 deep green and wears a sable band and turquoise 

 buttons in black settings. This caterpillar, after 

 feeding greedily upon young willow leaves or 

 sprigs of ash and poplar, lies down to rest in 

 the groove of a leaf, weaving a little silken shawl 

 about itself." 



" Oh yes ! " cried Tommy- Anne, in delight ; 

 " that is a cocoon. I gathered a great many of 

 those things last summer, but they wizzled away, 

 and nothing ever came out of them." 



" No ; this little veiled caterpillar is not the 

 cocoon ; that is why no butterflies came out of 

 yours. After the caterpillar has rested, he moults 

 the shawl, and goes to another leaf and eats again 

 and rests, and he does this until he has rested 

 and moulted four times, all the while growing 

 larger. At last he spins a web and draws a leaf 

 together until it closes around him like a ham- 

 mock, and in this he makes the bed in which he 

 lies during the two or three weeks that it takes, 



