18 PHYSIOLOGY OF THE EGGS 
It is not very easy to imagine how these little 
animals can accomplish this beautiful arrangement, 
by means of their tail and feet, in such a manner, 
that the hand of man could not perform it with 
greater exactness and nicety. The ingenious Reau- 
mur made many ineffectual attempts to investigate 
this operation, but in vain. He reared numbers of 
the moth from the eggs, and supplied the females 
With appropriate twigs; but they most pertinaci- 
ously avoided the accustomed symmetrical regu- 
larity of their kind, and extruded their eggs at 
random.* 
The following is a representation of the eggs of 
some unknown moth, which in some years may be 
seen rather plentifully in orchards, deposited in a 
manner very similar to that of the Lackey Moth: 
Tn depositing its eggs, the female Vapourer Moth 
(Orgyia antiqua) takes care to avail herself of the 
* Reaumun, i. p. 95. 
