124 
A NATURALIST ON THE PROWL. 
victim is sleeping, and then in one moment the work is 
done. Thenceforth the caterpillar will carry its worst 
enemy within it, one which, like the sin of spiritual pride, 
will grow with its growth and fatten on the wholesomest 
food it eats. Such a caterpillar is only a semblance, a 
sham ; better that some bird or spider cut short its career. 
For when the time comes that it should cast its slough and 
rise to heaven on golden wings, that slough will be all that 
is left of it, a mere veil to hide the ghastly grub which 
wriggles and devours within. It is a pitiful fate, but who 
has pity to spare for a creature that sought safety in 
vileness ? I wish that some ichneumon would infest the 
garden bug. 
Offensive caterpillars generally grow into offensive butter- 
flies, as is fit, and such butterflies, you may infer, are not 
of the highest order. In colour they are often gaudy, just 
as sweepers in holiday attire are the gayest members 
of a Bombay crowd ; but they are dull-witted and slow, 
easy to catch, if worth the catching. Those butterflies 
which are good for food are usually swift and wary, their 
senses sharpened by the discipline of danger, and in the 
caterpillars of these you will find the same qualities in the 
form of sly caution and tricky ingenuity. Look at the leaf- 
