The Noonday Lesson of the Trimrose 



expression of its beautiful sympathy, the yellow 

 margins of the wings, whicli }^rotrude from the 

 flower, being (juite primrose-like, and the pink being 

 refleeted in the rosy hue which the wilting primrose 

 petals so often assume, especially at the throat. 



These pretty moths are by no means rare. A 

 careful search is quite certain to disclose a number 

 of them. I once found three secreted in the 

 tlowers of a single plant. 



The progeny of our tiny pink and yellow moth 

 will feed upon the young seed-pods of the primrose 

 at a later date. They are smooth, green caterpillars 

 which so exactly resemble in size and shape the seed- 

 pods themselves that even a vireo or worm-eating 

 warbler, who is supposed to know a green caterpil- 

 lar when he sees one, might perch among these 

 without a suspicion, except, perhaps, at the tickling 

 of its feet by the rudely touched victim. 



Nearly all insect-eating birds are very fond of 

 these green caterpillars, so that doubtless none 

 would ever reach the moth stage, and the primroses 

 would be robbed of their benefactors if their protec- 

 tive coloring was less perfect. 



Even in winter, when the stories of the waiting 

 bud, the blighted blossom, the fairv tent, and the 

 dainty pod are fmished, the primrose still has a 



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