218 The Naturalist in Siluria. 



one standing upright on the edge of a leaf, or stretched 

 out horizontally to its fullest extent, feeling about for 

 other support ; now two or three, and of different kinds, 

 meeting, wriggling together, and crawling over one 

 another all this was an interesting spectacle, though 

 not a very pleasant one. For no form of animated nature 

 would be much more repulsive than that of the cater- 

 pillar. I could not see that there was any antagonism or 

 hostility between the different species ; indeed, all seemed 

 on an amicable footing, and engaged in the common pur- 

 pose of leaf-eating, to prepare themselves for the next 

 stage of their curious existence that of chrysalis. 



A somewhat interesting fact in relation to these insect 

 larvce has been communicated to me by a man who keeps 

 sheep in the forest. He says that in places where the 

 grubs get upon the ground the sheep shy away from 

 them, and will not touch the grass so infested ; all of 

 which is quite natural and comprehensible. And this 

 leads to consideration of another fact, more difficult to 

 comprehend, if, indeed, possible that in a wood where 

 these caterpillars appear, instead of scattering all over it, 

 they do their work of leaf-eating in a regular way, taking 

 the trees in belts, often with well-defined edges, just as 

 do human beings at bark-stripping. 



A CASE OF BIRD EVICTION. 



It is stated by some ornithological writers that the 

 starling occasionally takes possession of the green wood- 

 pecker's nest, evicting the owner by force. If the state- 

 meat be true, then is the fact a strange one, since 



