EGGS OF CATERPILLARS. 
15 
A moth, called the gypsey moth,* has the 
hinder part of her body covered with down. She 
does not want the down to keep her warm, since 
she only lives a week or fortnight in the hottest 
days of August. She strips it off to make a 
covering for her eggs, and I will tell you how she 
does it. She carries a pair of tweezers at her tail, 
that are quite as useful to her as a pair of hands; 
for she can turn them about, and stretch them to 
whatever length she requires. 
When she is going to lay her eggs, she places 
herself on the trunk of an oak or an elm, and 
pulls off a little piece of down from her body, and 
makes a bed of it, for her first egg. Then she lays 
another egg, and another, placing them one on 
the top of the other, in the form of a cone. The 
eggs stick together, as well as to the tree, because 
of the gummy substance that covers them, and 
that also helps to pull the down from the body of 
the moth. When she has finished, she plucks off 
more down, and roofs over the little cone of eggs 
with the greatest care, making the hairs point all 
one way, like the tiles of a house. 
Sometimes the moth is two days in completing 
her cone; and even when she takes a little rest, 
she does not quit the spot or change her position. 
She uses up every atom of down from her body; 
* Ilypogymna dispar. 
