152 HALF-HOURS IN THE GREEN LANES. 



with the lepidoptera. Not only have many of the 

 larvae or caterpillars the power of varying their ex- 

 ternal colour to those of the plants on which they 

 feed, but even the fully developed insect is similarly 

 protected. Many of those little moths, the Tineidse, 

 when settled on a leaf, look like the droppings of 

 birds. Others, when their wings are folded, have 

 that prolongation which has given some of them 

 their names, as our " Swallow-tail," so leaning 



Fig. 108. Fig. 109. 



Egg of the Cabbage Moth. Egg of the Common Magpie 



Moth. 



against the plant on which the insect is resting, 

 that -they look like a leaf with its footstalk. The 

 colours of the wings, also, and the mottlings, have 

 in many cases a similar protective function. None 

 have better shown this wonderful adaptation of 

 butterflies and moths to the circumstances of their 

 existence than Messrs. Wallace and Bates. In 

 Fig. 110 is an illustration of the common Orange-Tip 

 butterfly (AnthocJiaris cardamines) at rest on an um- 



