Woodside. 5 1 



Now unroll one of the twisted leaves. Another caterpillar 

 comes wriggling and twisting out ; and when you open other 

 leaves, out come more caterpillars. These are not the same 

 as those we found in the web, for they are pale green in 

 colour. They are called Tortrices, or " Twisters " ; you 

 understand at once why, when you see these caterpillars 

 twisting up the leaves of the trees and shrubs on which they 

 live, and on which they carry out their work of destruction. 

 In the leafy month of June they are sometimes to be found 

 in incredible numbers; but they constitute the food with 

 which Nature supports a vast family of her bird children ; 

 and just now, when wrens, tits, nightingales and finches 

 have their hungry broods to feed, these caterpillars have a 

 bad time of it, and the trees and shrubs are thus saved from 

 utter destruction. 



Yonder is an immense oak-tree, perfectly bare. Is it 

 dead ? you ask. No ; its leaves have been completely 

 eaten off by the larvae of another of these " twisters," called 

 the Green Oak moth, or Pea-green Tortrix, from the exqui- 

 site tint of the moth. Let us stand under the tree a few 

 minutes. Here, hanging by silk threads, floating gracefully 

 in the air, ever and anon letting themselves fall to the 

 ground, are the plump, fat larvae ; and here, on the honey- 

 suckle bushes and grass at the foot of the tree, we find the 

 rolled-up leaves in which the earlier caterpillars have 

 changed to shiny black pupae, which in a few days will give 

 forth beautiful moths. These will, in their turn, lay eggs, 

 the larvae from which will carry on a similar work of de-' 

 struction next year ; so that, as we see, in spite of the won- 

 derful energies put forth by the birds all around us, a vast 

 amount of damage is still done. What would be the ulti- 



