EGGS OF CATERPILLARS. 
13 
where her young ones may have an abundance of 
food. She herself only sips the nectar of flowers, 
and you might think she would collect a store of 
the same delicious food for her offspring. But 
instinct teaches her better. It is not a butterfly, 
but a caterpillar for which she has to care; and 
she knows that it will want green leaves to eat, 
as soon as it comes out of its shell. So she lays 
her eggs on exactly the right plant, the one that 
the caterpillar will like to feed upon the best. 
The small tortoise-shell butterfly always chooses 
the nettle; and another of the same family prefers 
the hop. Some, however, are not quite so 
particular, and will lay their eggs on every tree 
and plant, from the sweet-briar to the oak. 
But the forethought of the mother does not 
end here. If the eggs are to be hatched that 
summer, she merely gums them to the leaf, as 
they will need no defence from cold or stormy 
weather. But this would never do, if they are to 
lie, as many eggs do, until the spring; for then 
the leaf would wither, and be blown away by the 
winds of autumn. In this case, she does not 
fasten them to the leaf at all, but to the trunk, or 
to the branch; and covers them with a shell, thick 
enough to resist the weather, and packs them as 
close as possible, filling up the gaps with a hard 
strong gum. 
