THE SWALLOW-TAILS 



And as if to demonstrate that it is truly at home 

 wherever it may be and that it has no race or 

 color prejudice, it has in the South wives that are 

 black. It is a brave flyer and lifts itself easily 

 over houses and trees. It is especially a habitant 

 of the latter ; from our upper windows we have 

 watched it fluttering about among the tip-top 

 branches quite as much at home as on the lilac 

 bushes or on the peonies of the lawn. It has a 

 catholic taste in the matter of odor, and is equally 

 devoted to fragrant flowers and to waste matter 

 by no means fragrant. Its especial weakness 

 is tobacco smoke. When fishing in the Adiron- 

 dacks it was one of the daily diversions of the 

 senior author, while resting to smoke a cigar, to 

 watch the tiger swallow-tails come one by one 

 out of the wilderness and flutter about him with 

 every sign of enjoyment; if he held quite still, 

 they would settle comfortably on his forehead or 

 shoulders a little to the leeward so as to enjoy to 

 the utmost the luxury of a second-hand smoke. 



The caterpillar has most interesting ways : it 

 makes at first a silken rug on the leaf where it 

 rests when not feeding (Fig. 26). When fully 

 grown it pulls the edges of the leaf together 

 slightly and weaves a web across, thus making 

 for itself a spring mattress on which to doze ; it 

 5 53 



