x PREFACE 



all day long. The consequence is, of course, that 

 they grow very quickly ; and in a few days' time 

 they find that their jackets are much too tight 

 for them. Then a most curious thing happens. 

 Their skins split right down the back, and they 

 wriggle and twist about, and rub themselves 

 against the surrounding objects, till at last they 

 manage to creep out of them altogether and 

 appear in new ones, which had been gradually 

 forming underneath the oldl 



Wouldn't it be nice if we could get new suits 

 of clothes, or new frocks, as easily as this ? 



As soon as their change of garments is over, 

 the little caterpillars begin to feed again, as 

 hungrily as before. But after about a week 

 their new skins are too tight for them, and they 

 have to change them again ! This very often 

 happens six or seven times before they are fully 

 fed. But at last they stop eating, throw off their 

 skins once more, and appear as chrysalids. 



You may often find these chrysalids on fences 

 and walls, and also on the stems and leaves of 

 bushes and low plants. Sometimes they are 

 suspended by the tips of their tails from little 

 silken pads, which the caterpillars spin for that 

 purpose; and sometimes they are held upright 

 by silken belts round the middle of their bodies. 

 They cannot see, for they have no eyes; and 

 they cannot eat, for they have no mouths; and 

 of course they cannot move about. All that they 

 can do, if you touch them, is just to wriggle 



