" PROFESSOR WIGGLER " 79 



it mean ? I had been expecting daily to see my 

 full-grown caterpillars either beginning their co- 

 coons or suspending themselves by their tails in 

 readiness for the chrysalis state. Yet they had 

 done neither. Their time had evidently come, 

 but they were not satisfied with their surround- 

 ings, and would seem to wish to escape ; and yet,. 

 having gnawed their way to liberty, deliberately 

 remained in prison ! It was some days before I 

 correctly interpreted their curious contradictory 

 actions, and as I remember it now, my hint came 

 from a spider-web which had spread its catch all 

 beneath a lilac-bush, and upon which I discerned 

 a number of tiny balls of sawdust which had 

 chanced to fall upon it. Looking directly above,, 

 among the branches, I soon found a wiggler, not 

 only gnawing the wood but with one-third of its- 

 body in a burrow in a twig the size of my finger.. 

 I had observed him thus for a few moments when. 

 he began to back out, drawing with him a tiny- 

 ball of sawdust, which he threw out with a slight, 

 wiggle, and soon resumed operations. 



Leaving him to his work, I lost no time in tak- 

 ing the hint, and my box was soon criss-crossed 

 with small twigs, and my remaining wigglers soon 

 found themselves at home and littered my box 

 with their chip pellets. The burrow is first made 

 diagonally to the pith, and then follows the centre 

 for about two-thirds of an inch. I remember hav- 



