A SHEEP IN WOLF'S CLOTHING 49 



■with black borders and veins, is its protection ; for it 

 is an advertisement, a sort of a poster which proclaims 

 that here is something that right-minded birds leave 

 alone. So our palatable Viceroy has developed colors 

 and markings so nearly like the unpalatable Monarch 

 that no feathered creature will touch him, unless per- 

 chance one shall be knowing enough to notice the 

 black band across the Viceroy's hind wings which is 

 his chief distinguishing mark. 



To understand the magnitude of the feat accom- 

 plished by the Viceroys in abjuring their family colors 

 of black, white, and blue, and adopting the orange and 

 black uniform of the Monarchs we must consider the 

 vast differences in the earlier stages of the two species. 

 The Monarch egg is laid upon the tender terminal 

 leaves of milkweed and is quite as ornate as that of 

 the Viceroy but of quite different pattern. When the 

 caterpillar hatches, it pursues the same tactics as does 

 that of the Viceroy ; and for the same wise " precaution 

 eats its egg-shell. The milkweed is a succulent food, 

 and the caterpillar may mature in eleven days ; when 

 full grown it is a gay creatm-e banded crosswise with 

 black, yellow, and green ; on the second segment of the 

 thorax and the seventh segment of the abdomen are a 

 pair of black, flexible, whiplike filaments. They are 

 smug-looking caterpillars, and they are smug in spirit 



