MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES 91 



hand, always sleep away the sunny hours, then 

 wake up and fly about at night. Although they 

 choose to fly m the dark, they seem to be so en- 

 chanted with our lamphghts that they cannot keep 

 away from them and are often burned in the flame. 

 Poor, foolish little moths! 



Often in the daytime you can see these moths 

 resting in the shadow under leaves or on tree trunks 

 with their wings widespread. And often when you 

 walk in the deep grass or among low bushes the 

 moths will fly up and then go back to rest again. 



You can always tell a moth from a butterfly in 

 these two ways. The butterfly loves the sun and 

 the flowers that open in the daytime and so it flies 

 about by day. When it alights upon a flower or 

 leaf, or upon the roadside, it closes its wings together 

 over its back. But the moth sleeps by day and flies 

 by night, and whenever it comes to rest it spreads 

 its wings wide open. 



Butterflies and moths do not harm plants; but the 

 caterpillars from which they develop eat the leaves 

 of trees and plants. Some of them, the hairy ones, 

 do much harm, for there are so many of them that 

 they eat all the leaves, and that kills the tree. Few 

 birds like hairy caterpillars and most birds will not 

 eat them. But the smooth caterpillars the birds 

 do eat, and because of that there are seldom enough 

 to do our trees any great harm. It is the smooth 

 caterpillars that change to butterflies. 



Did you ever see or hear a caterpillar eating its 

 dinner? 



It is a very greedy little glutton, for it eats all the 



