194 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth are 

 twisted and writhed in comic fashion, heads or their 

 tail ends stuck into the air; whilst at one spot on 

 the nettle leaf is a little jumble of black caterpillars, 

 a dozen or so lying anyhow. They one and all look 

 exactly like dried-up, jejune caterpillars, mere shucks 

 or skins, not worth a bird's notice. 



I watched the two dozen dead caterpillars for a 

 minute or two. Not one stirred. Their positions 

 looked so uncomfortable that, humanising them in 

 thought, I half expected to see one or two of them 

 stealthily move ; as if a man shamming death, 

 and finding his arm or leg getting the cramp or 

 his neck or back beginning to ache intolerably, would 

 try quietly to slide into a kinder position. But no 

 such weakness affects the peacock caterpillars. 

 It is as though they knew or Nature knew for 

 them that their life depended on dead stillness. 

 Probably there is not the slightest discomfort for 

 a caterpillar in these awkward, uncouth attitudes. 

 Anyhow, there they remained; and not till I re- 

 turned several minutes later, were the ugly little 

 black things straightening themselves out and ex- 

 amining new leaf quarters. Tap the nettle again, 

 instantly every caterpillar drops dead again, and is 

 dead for several minutes. That this sudden fall and 

 the stillness which follows are useful I quite think, 

 though once an enemy visits the nettle bed, it will 

 on doubt seize a certain number of caterpillars. 



