THE HAWTHORN, 



229 



tallest trees. The eggs lie exposed upon the 

 leaf without being covered with any sort of wool, 

 and after the lapse of about a fortnight become 

 of a silvery colour, and are more deeply ribbed. 

 The caterpillars can now be discovered shining 

 through some of them, and in the course of two 

 or three days more they all burst their shells and 

 commence their predatory life, the empty cases 

 melting like wax in the heat of the sun. The 

 newly hatched caterpillars are of a dirty yellow 

 colour, and covered with hair ; the head is black, 

 and there is a black ring round the neck, and a 

 brownish red stripe on both sides of the body. 

 On the approach of rain, they draw the leaf 

 together over them by means of a web, and thus 

 secure for themselves a sufficient shelter, however 

 unfavourable the weather may be. This living 

 penthouse serves them not only for shelter, but 

 for food ; in the course of a few days, therefore, 

 having devoured the whole of the leaf except the 

 veins, they find it necessary to look out for a 

 new lodging, and add the next leaf to their old 

 abode, connecting it by a web. But as it som.e- 

 times happens that summer-storms have the same 

 effect as autumnal frosts in stripping the trees of 

 their foliage, in order to prevent any such cata- 

 strophe befalling their dw^elling, they secure the 

 leaf under which they have taken shelter by fas- 

 tening it to the shoots with threads. In rainy 

 weather, or when the sun is very hot, they remain 

 quiet at home ; but as their appetite increases 

 with their size, and the walls and roof of their 

 dwelling-house still constitute their only subsist- 

 ence, in two days' time another change of resi- 

 dence is necessary, and is effected in the same way. 



