172 STRANGE DWELLINGS. 



pushed into one end of the leafy cyHnder, the caterpillar hastily 

 ' bundles ' out of the other — there is no other word which so 

 fully expresses the peculiar action of the larva — and lowers itself 

 towards the ground by a silken thread which proceeds from its 

 mouth. In fact, it acts like a spider in similar circumstances. 



Where these insects are plentiful, an absurd effect can be 

 produced by tapping the branches of oak trees with a stick. As 

 the 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 drop- 

 ping in little jerks of an inch or two each. Some of them are 

 more timid than the others, and descend nearly to the ground, 

 but the general mass of them remains at about the same height. 

 Another tap will cause them all to drop a foot or two lower, the 

 stroke being felt even at the end of the suspending thread, and 

 by administering a succession of such taps they will all be in- 

 duced to come to the ground. There they will wait a consider- 

 able time, but presently one of them will begin to reascend, 

 working its way upwards 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 bloAving, 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 violently blown about by the wind. 



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

 the larvae, and a shake with the hand will cause a whole cloud 

 of the green creatures to issue forth, producing a strangely con- 



