172 
STRANGE DWELLINGS . 
pushed into one end of the leafy cylinder, the caterpillar hastily 
4 bundles ’ out of the other — there is no other word which so 
fully expresses the peculiar action of the larva — and lowers itself 
towards the ground by a silken thread which proceeds from its 
mouth. In fact, it acts like a spider in similar circumstances. 
Where these insects are plentiful, an absurd effect can be 
produced by tapping the branches of oak trees with a stick. As 
the stroke reverberates through the branch, the leaves, which 
appear to the casual passenger to be in their ordinary condition, 
give forth their inhabitants, and hundreds of tiny caterpillars 
descend in hot haste, each lowering itself by a thread and drop- 
ping in little jerks of an inch or two each. Some of them are 
more timid than the others, and descend nearly to the ground, 
but the general mass of them remains at about the same height. 
Another tap will cause them all to drop a foot or two lower, the 
stroke being felt even at the end of the suspending' thread, and 
by administering a succession of such taps they will all be in- 
duced to come to the ground. There they will wait a consider- 
able time, but presently one of them will begin to reascend, 
working its way upwards along the slender and scarcely visible 
line as easily as if it were crawling upon level ground. The 
least alarm will cause them to drop again, for they are then very 
timid, but if allowed to remain in peace, they speedily reach 
their cells and enter them with a haste that very much resembles 
the quick jerk with which a soklier-crab enters the shell from 
which he has been ejected. 
If a tolerably smart breeze be blowing, the sight is still more 
curious, for the caterpillars are swung about through very large 
arcs, and, if the wind be steady, are all blown in one direction, 
so that their line forms quite a large angle with the level of the 
leaf to which the upper end is attached. The caterpillars, 
however, seem to be quite indifferent in the matter, and ascend 
steadily, whether the line be simply perpendicular, or whether 
it be violently blown' about by the wind. 
At the proper season of year, the moths are as plentiful as 
the larvse, and a shake with the hand will cause a whole cloud 
of the green creatures to issue forth, producing a strangely con- 
