240 A TOUR ROUND MY GARDEN. 



as the others have. But these caterpillars were not fed 

 during their lives upon either leaves or flowers, nor did they 

 at the period of transformation spin themselves a shroud of 

 silk. 



These are very small caterpillars with sixteen legs, and 

 which are seldom seen, although the traces of their passage 

 can but too plainly be perceived in stuffs and furs, in which 

 they make for themselves a wide road, considering their size, 

 and which they ravage and destroy without mercy. 



During the summer these little grey moths that flit about 

 in houses, deposit their white eggs upon some of the hangings 

 of the furniture; little caterpillars issue from these eggs, and 

 immediately set about feeding and clothing themselves. The 

 stuff upon which they are born presents them at once with 

 vestments and food; they tear out hairs of the wool, and 

 make of them a case or sheath, which they elongate and 

 enlarge in proportion with their own growth. When the 

 vestment is finished, they still continue to pull out the hairs 

 of wool, but now for the purpose of eating them. 



If one of these little caterpillars, which pass, even in that 

 state, by the general name of the moth, be upon red cloth, its 

 covering will be red ; this is the case just now upon the arm of 

 my chair, which is of woollen velvet ; if it be upon furnitm-e 

 of other colours, these colours will, in the same way, be re- 

 cognised in its vestments. This, which appears so necessary 

 that it is scarcely worth while to repeat it, is not however 

 without exceptions. It sometimes happens, that a moth 

 placed upon red cloth makes itself a white coat, and that 

 another born upon grey cloth weaves itself a red or blue vest- 

 ment. But if you examine these stuffs through a microscope 

 you will see white hairs in the red cloth, and hairs of all 

 sorts of colours in the grey, of which it has pleased the moth, 

 for reasons with which I am unacquainted, to make an exclu- 

 sive choice. 



Whether it prefers a certain colour for its vestment, and 

 others for its food, I know not ; I have not been able to dis- 

 cover any convincing proof whether this insect coquetry 

 prevails over greediness. 



We may however say, that in case of famine, the moth eats 

 its own coat, and appears to think it dehcious food ; others 



