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COCOONS, BUT NOT OF SILK. 
This process of pulling off the hair seems to 
be a painful one; but the caterpillar goes on 
working with the greatest energy, until its body 
is entirely stripped of its covering, and the 
cocoon looks as if it were made of hair. Last 
of all, it spins a lining of very fine silk, to pro¬ 
tect the chrysalis from the prickly points that 
will surround it. 
In some instances the hair is found mingled 
with the paste, and so both materials are used in 
the same cocoon. 
There is a little hairy caterpillar that has a very 
droll way of proceeding. It outs off its hairs, 
and sets them upright in a ring, side by side, 
like the sticks in a paling. Then it joins them 
together with a slight web of silk, and bends 
them down over its head into a roof, beneath 
which, it may lie sheltered, and undergo its 
change. 
Another material used in the place of silk, is 
the bark or wood of a tree. This makes the 
cocoon very hard indeed, so that it can scarcely 
be broken, even by the point of a knife. The 
caterpillar with its strong jaws gnaws off little 
pieces of wood, and masticates them into a paste; 
and of this it builds its cocoon, and lines it, as the 
others do, with silk. There is more strength than 
beauty in its wooden dwelling, that looks very 
