THE BUTTERFLY. 



159 



sand times his own weight of food ! What a famous 

 digestion he must have. No wonder gardeners dread 

 to see caterpillars on their berry-bushes and fruit-trees. 

 Soon he gets like the boy who ate so much pudding 

 and plum-cake that he burst his buttons ; but, as the 

 caterpillar's clothes have no buttons, they split right 

 down the back and drop off altogether. But he is a 

 good tailor ; and, before he gets fairly out of his old 

 suit, he is into a new one, and, instead of leaving his 

 old clothes for the rag-pickers, he turns about and eats 

 them all up, and becomes more of a glutton than ever. 

 He eats so much and gets so fat, that he has to have 

 about six suits in one season, and, as he grows older and 

 fatter, his vanity increases, and each new suit is more 

 gayly trimmed than the one before ! This casting off 

 of his old clothes is called moulting. It has probably 

 made you think of the way in which a lobster gets out 

 of his shell. 



Now let us look at the external or outside appear- 

 ance of the caterpillar. First, his shape. They are all 

 roundish, some of them tapering at both ends, others 

 more like a rolling-pin ; some short and fat, others long 

 and graceful; some covered with hairs, others with 

 tufts of hairs, like the " pon-pons " ladies wear in their 

 hats. Their colors seem endless. Some are green, with 

 white rings around their necks, others green, with red 



