108 SCIENTIFIC TERMS. 



sufficiently strong to bear the weight of the inclosed 

 insect, and to guard it from small foes. 



On plate B, and fig. 5 b, the silken hammock is 

 represented, the form of the pupa inside being visible. 

 It casts off its skin for the last time, and instead of 

 being a hirsute and active caterpillar, becomes a 

 smooth and quiescent chrysalis. In this state it 

 abides for a time that varies according to the time 

 of year and the degree of temperature, and at last 

 bursts its earthly holdings, coming to the light of 

 the sun a perfect insect. 



When first the creature becomes a chrysalis, its 

 colour is white, and its surface is bathed in an oily 

 kind of liquid, which soon hardens in the air, and 

 darkens in the light. 



On one occasion, I watched a Woolly Bear chang- 

 ing its skin, and, seizing it immediately that the 

 task was accomplished, put it into spirits of wine, 

 intending to keep it for observation. 



Next day, the spirit was found to have dissolved 

 away the oily coating, and all the limbs and wings 

 of the future moth were standing boldly out. 



Before closing this chapter, I must just remark 

 that the absence of scientific terms throughout the 

 work will be intentional, from a wish to make the 

 subject intelligible, instead of imposing. It would 

 have been easy enough to speak of the Woolly Bear 

 as the larva of Arctia Caja ; to describe it as a chi- 

 lognathiform larva, with a subcylindrical body, and 



