184 Signals of Autumn 



The large, horned caterpillars of various hawk- 

 moths also fall now and then from tall trees in the 

 August winds. Even under the lime-trees in Ken- 

 sington Gardens in London, where the smirched 

 leaves do not seem to offer very dainty pasturage, 

 a lime hawk caterpillar fell once among the withered 

 leaves. For many minutes after the shock the 

 caterpillar feigned death ; then, seeming none the 

 worse, it wandered away on new adventures. Cater- 

 pillars are blown down most easily when they are 

 full-fed, and the approaching change to a chrysalis 

 makes them flaccid and uneasy. If it is ripe for 

 the change, a fall to earth may do the creature 

 little harm ; it will soon burrow in the soil, and 

 form its loose earthy cocoon. But if it still needs 

 food, it has no instinct to climb the tree into the 

 green leaves again. Instinct brings it creeping 

 to earth when it is time for it to change, but does 

 not arrange to send it up again if it falls too early. 

 The fate of a wandering hawk-moth caterpillar in 

 the London parks is usually to perish as an object 

 of horrified interest at the hands of some band of 

 children. 



Wet and windy weather is common in early 

 August, when north- country farmers look for the 

 Lammas floods. There are usually days at this 

 time when the bronzed masses of a leafy landscape 

 shift from dawn to dusk in a restless chequer- work 

 as the leaves toss their pale sides to the wind. 

 Beneath a grey sky and over the dull brown of 

 grass first parched, then sodden, this contrast of 

 darkness and pallor in the tree-tops has a strange 



