76 EYE SPY 



developed, to say nothing of their wiggling pro- 

 pensities. 



How well I remember the "whack! whack f 

 whack !" from the inside of the pasteboard or 

 wooden box as I entered the room, or chanced to 

 make the slightest commotion in its neighbor- 

 hood, as the captive pets threatened to dash their 

 brains out in their demonstrations at my approach. 

 Opening the box, I was always greeted with the 

 same concert of whisking heads, the action being 

 more particularly expressive from the long pro- 

 jecting lash of hairs, an inch and a quarter in 

 length, with which the caterpillar's head was pro- 

 vided. One singular feature of these hairs had 

 always puzzled me in the earlier life of the cater- 

 pillar, but was soon explained by close observa- 

 tion. At intervals of every quarter of an inch or sa 

 in the length of the slender tuft we find, in perfect 

 specimens, a tiny brown speck — perhaps three or 

 four — graduating in size to the tip of the hairs^ 

 where the atom is scarcely visible, or generally 

 absent. A careful examination of their shape re- 

 vealed the fact that they were exactly like the 

 heads of the younger caterpillars in all their 

 stages, and their presence and successive accu- 

 mulation were readily explained by the moult- 

 ing habits of the caterpillar, which is common 

 to all caterpillars. By these telltale tokens we 

 know that the professor has changed his clothes 



