88 
NATURE NOTES. 
coming scarce ; so now, pressed by these feathered rivals, the 
squirrels leap upon the window-ledge and take their favourite 
food from our very hands. I have not spoken of the tribes of 
birds — robins, sparrows, finches, blue-tits, thrushes, and starlings. 
Such a crowd of these we have, all busily feeding, chirping, and 
alas ! squabbling to their hearts’ content over the bread, hemp- 
seed, and other dainties spread before them. The window is left 
open, and we now seat ourselves only to be further entertained 
by the squirrels, who glide into the room and coolly go to a 
cupboard, the fame of which is evidently passed down from 
father to son, where they leap up and help themselves from 
a box of nuts, which they well know is always to be found 
there. 
I often wish our Selbornian members could see these pretty 
sights, and share my pleasure in witnessing them. I write 
about them that those who reside in the country may learn 
that if they please, the)^ may have the same enjoyment by 
throwing out a few Barcelona nuts and some sopped bread 
regularly every morning. In a year or two the squirrels will 
probably have become as tame as mine. There is, however, 
one condition. I keep no dog or cat, for either the one or the 
other will effectually drive away or kill the squirrels, and it is 
because there is scarcely a house to be found without barking 
dogs and prowling cats, that these pretty rodents are so seldom 
seen enjoying their lives peacefully as they do in this place. I 
long ago found that I must forego dog and cat pets if I wished 
to cultivate wild nature, and I am abundantly rewarded for my 
decision by the pretty scenes which animate my lawns and 
shrubberies. 
Eliza Brightwen. 
Izaak Walton’s Caterpillar. — In The Complcat Angler, chap. v. (fourth 
day), Walton describes very fully a remarkable caterpillar, and also mentions its 
food-plant and its strange crust-like cocoon, to which he applies the term aurelia. 
So far as I am aware, his editors have not determined the species he intends, but 
it seems quite clear that his excellent and graphic description must refer to the 
larva of the puss-moth (Dicranura vinu/a), which he quite pardonably calls a 
“butterfly.” The description is as follows: “ The very colours of caterpillars 
are, as one has observed, very elegant and beautiful. I shall, for a taste of the 
rest, describe one of them, which I will, some time the next month, show you 
feeding on a willow tree, and you shall find him punctually to answer this very 
description : his lips and mouth somewhat yellow, his eyes black as jet, his fore- 
head purple, his feet and hinder parts green, his tail two-forked and black, the 
whole body stained with a kind of red spots, which run along the neck and 
shoulder-blade, not unlike the form of St. Andrew’s cross, or the letter made 
thus cross-wise, and a white line drawn down his back to his tail, all which add 
much beauty to his whole body. And it is to me observable that at a fixed age 
this cateriiillar gives over to eat, and towards winter comes to be covered over 
with a strange shell or crust, called an aurelia, and so lives a kind of dead life, 
without eating, all the winter ; and, as others of several kinds turn to be several 
kinds of flies and vermin the spring following, so this caterpillar then turns to be 
a painted butterfly.” 
R. F. Tow Nil ROW. 
