100 OP SOCIABLE CATEKPILLARS. 



amusing picture, when it sets out in quest of food. 

 It is a native of France, and feeds on the leaves of 

 the oak. They live in families of from six to eight 

 hundred individuals. In their earliest stage they 

 have no settled habitation, but pitch their tent 

 wherever their fancy directs ; and it is not till they 

 are tvi^o-thirds grown that they fonn a domicile large 

 enough for the whole community, which I have 

 already described. It is generally about sunset that 

 the colony leaves its quarters, and sets out on its 

 excui'sive rambles. They are led by a chief, who 

 regulates all their movements ; three, or sometimes 

 four, of his immediate followers, move in the same 

 line, the head of each touching the tail of his pre- 

 cursor. Their movement is in a sort of pyramidal 

 form ; for after these Indian file, there comes a series 

 in pairs, after them a number in threes, fours, and 

 increasing systematically, till the column is con- 

 cluded by rows of from fifteen to twenty. This little 

 army (if I may be allowed the expression) pro- 

 ceeds with a steady movement, each animal follow- 

 ing in direct line that which precedes it. If their 

 leader makes a turn at any particular point, the 

 whole of his followers arrive at the same spot be- 

 fore they make a wheel. They may be guided in 

 this movement by a particular odour left by the 

 leader on the line of his march. This is not, how- 

 ever, their invariable order of proceeding. 



The leader has nothing different in his appeal'- 



