266 GOLD-TAIL CATERPILLARS. 



verdant, perfect image, in the compass of an oak-leaf, of the 

 progress of a marauding army of a worse description ! 



Our youthful invaders of the forest are not strong enough 

 to brave an inclement season without shelter. No sooner, 

 therefore, do the changing hues of autumn begin to threaten 

 them with failure of their supplies, than with instinctive 

 foresight they begin to prepare cantonments for the winter ; 

 and long before the arrival of November we may behold 

 our oak-leaf companies snugly housed in branch-suspended 

 barracks, consisting of hammocks spun by themselves of 

 thickly -woven silk. Quartered in these, in social congrega- 

 tion, and bidding defiance to howling winds and nipping 

 frosts, which only serve to rock them to repose, or numb 

 them to torpor, they pass the season of death and rigour ; but 

 with the return of spring, the caterpillar army is again on 

 foot, sharpened in appetite, but not improved in discipline, 

 for instead of, as heretofore, marching in files, and messing 

 together on a single leaf, they disperse like disbanded and 

 insubordinate soldiers, each to forage on the new and tender 

 foliage. 



Yet awhile, perhaps towards the beginning of July,- and 

 we pass beneath some ill-fated oak-tree on which the legion 

 has been actively engaged. Where, now, proud monarch of 

 the woods, are thy verdant honours ? Where that crown of 

 royalty, which, when other leafy coronets are falling around 

 thee, is wont to be only gilded by the suns of autumn, and 



