CATERPILLARS 125 



Long after most of the other lessons are forgotten, 

 the children will look back with pleasure upon 

 these happy moments of discovery. 



It has been our good fortune twice this fall to 

 see a hairy caterpillar divesting itself of its hairs 

 that it might weave them into its coverlet. It 

 seemed to require no effort. Did it pull them out 

 or bite them off? I am not sure. It did not 

 appear to carry them in its mouth. How, then, did it 

 carry them ? This question must be solved by further 

 observation. How deftly it wove those hairs into its 

 cocoon, spreading them very evenly over its surface ! 

 How could that clumsy-looking body, with the still 

 clumsier fleshy feet, move over that web with never 

 a trip or a break of the dainty silk? In what a 

 businesslike way the weaving was done, the thread 

 coming from its mouth as needed, and placed in 

 position by movements of its head and front legs. 

 When the top of the cocoon is to be thickened, it, 

 lying within, turns upon its back and weaves away 

 as if this were its natural position.* It really never 

 seems awkward when making its house, yet this 

 is the first one it ever built, and it will never have 

 an opportunity to build another. 



Several of the caterpillars use leaves as a par- 



