THE APPLE BLOSSOM To 
worms, however, while they live in the apple, because they never 
come out, but spend all their days in the dark inside. They have 
no windows or doors, and the little hole they bored when they went 
in soon closed up as the apple grew. 
The birds wait until the worm makes a door and comes out, 
then, if they see him, they pounce on him and eat him. In this 
way hundreds and thousands of worms are destroyed. 
But some worms succeed in reaching the tree trunk and in 
spinning their cocoons. You might think they were safe then, 
but they are not. The birds have learned to look under the cracks 
and edges of the bark for these sleeping worms, and they pick 
them off and eat them as fast as they can find them. This is one 
reason why not all apples are wormy ; and this is one great reason 
why we should not kill the birds, for they help to keep the worms 
from ruining all the apples. 
The Tent Caterpillar 
The apple tree has many other enemies beside the apple worm. 
Some of these attack the roots, some bore under the bark, some 
eat the leaves. One of the worst is the tent caterpillar. 
The tent-caterpillar moth lays a little bunch of brown eggs 
around a twig, looking exactly like a piece of the bark. The 
eggs hatch into caterpillars. 
Now the brother and sister caterpillars have the curious habit 
—curious among caterpillars, at least —of making a house for 
themselves and all living together. 
Around the end of a branch they spin a tent. Into this they 
creep at night after eating nearly all day. As they grow they 
