120 
THE ESCAPE OF THE MOTH. 
produced moths. This was very odd, and the 
gentleman, after waiting a long time for the rest 
to appear, concluded the chrysalides were dead, 
and thought no more about them. But to his 
astonishment, the next February twelve more 
moths came out, none the worse for the un¬ 
reasonable time they had lain in their cocoons. 
The next February the remaining twelve burst 
into life, and thus it had taken three successive 
seasons to hatch the whole brood. 
We can only imagine one reason for the delay. 
When the moths come out, the winter is not 
nearly over: there may be rough weather, and 
frost and snow, and it might chance, if the whole 
brood were hatched at once, they would on some 
occasion or other, be all destroyed. So part are 
kept back until the following year; and by this 
simple arrangement the species can never, by any 
accident of weather, become extinct. 
