26 IN THE ACADIAN LAND. 



will hatch. Now the serious thing that may 

 happen is this : a very small fly with a very 

 large concern for her future brood, thinks she 

 knows a good thing when she sees it, and if she 

 finds these eggs there will be no butterflies ever 

 come from them, but her own kind of flies in- 

 stead. She is provided with a sharp hollow 

 tube that connects with the eggs in her own 

 body. She thrusts it into the butterfly's egg, 

 and sends through a dozen or more of her own, 

 and then serves others in the same way. Now 

 if this event does not happen, and no other acci- 

 dent befalls them, the butterfly's egg will hatch, 

 and out of it will come a tiny brown caterpillar, 

 and then the battle begins in earnest. Enemies, 

 from ants to birds, are looking for him. The 

 chances to ever reach the butterfly stage are not 

 one to one hundred, but he is bound to make 

 trial for that chance. He begins to gnaw the 

 leaf and spin a bit of web carpet to stretch him- 

 self upon when not at work eating. As he 

 feeds, his skin becomes tighter, and in four days 

 it bursts open and he is larger and a little 

 changed in color. In five days more he has 

 become too big for his jacket and moults again. 

 Then he is about one-half inch in length, quite 

 green with the exception of a little marking ; 

 this color like the leaf is a great advantage, 



