314 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



stroke reverberates through the branch, the leaves, which appear 

 to the casual passenger to be in their ordinary condition, give 

 forth their inhabitants, and hundreds of tiny caterpillars descend 

 in hot haste, each lowering itself by a thread and dropping in lit- 

 tle jerks of an inch or two each. Some of them are more timid 

 than the others, and descend nearly to the ground; but the gen- 

 eral mass of them remains at about the same height. Another 

 tap will cause them all to drop a foot or two lower, the stroke be- 

 ing felt even at the end of the suspending thread ; and by admin- 

 istering a succession of such taps they will all be induced to come 

 to the ground. There they will wait a considerable time; but 

 presently one of them will begin to reascend, working its way up- 

 ward along the slender and scarcely visible line as easily as if it 

 were crawling upon level ground. The least alarm will cause 

 them to drop again, for they are then very timid ; but, if allowed 

 to remain in peace, they speedily reach their cells, and enter them 

 with a haste that very much resembles the quick jerk with which 

 a soldier-crab enters the shell from which he has been ejected. 



If a tolerably smart breeze be blowing, the sight is still more 

 curious, for the caterpillars are swung about through very large 

 arcs, and, if the wind be steady, are all blown in one direction, so 

 that their line forms quite a large angle with the level of the leaf 

 to which the upper end is attached. The caterpillars, however, 

 seem to be quite indifferent in the matter, and ascend steadily, 

 whether the line be simply perpendicular, or whether it be vio- 

 lently blown about by the wind. 



At the proper season of year, the moths are as plentiful as the 

 larvse, and a shake with the hand will cause a whole cloud of the 

 green creatures to issue forth, producing a strangely confused ef- 

 fect to the eye as they flutter about with an uncertain and devi- 

 ous flight. A sweep with an ordinary entomological net will cap- 

 ture plenty of them, but in a few minutes they all disappear, 

 some of them returning to the branches whence they had come, 

 and others dropping to the ground. During the summer of 1864 

 they were very plentiful in Darenth Wood, the heavy growth of 

 oaks giving them every encouragement. 



The insect which commits such devastation on the lilacs is gen- 

 erally the little chocolate-colored moth called the Lilac Moth 

 (Lazotcenia ribeana), though there are other allied species which 

 infest the same plant. Any one may see the damaged leaves for 



