The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-09-01
A BUTTERFLY nZOO."
THE WONDERFUL WAYS AND
 ;L,.5::
or Egg and Caterpillar and ChrysaIIa
 Into Moth and RuttsrhE.

lection of egg jewels: one little white sugar loaf on this budding milkweed; a yellow ring girdling this branch of will low; a sprinkling of little green gems on this young shoot of elm; poplar twig with one tiny green egg on each slender leaftip; and lastly; this clover plant, dotted all over with minute yellow spin dles.
 Now Is your time to examine the pret- ty things; for, as will appear, once the caterpillar is out, there won't be any egg left to examine. To the naked eye mere pinheads of brown or green or cream, the eggs of butterflies, under the microscope, prove rare examples of na- ture's finest handiwork. Exquisitely . chased as Chinese carved ivory ball; ribbed from f1attened base to crown and netted over with delicate cross-lines; pitted like coral or nubbed like an un- spined sea-urchin; crowned by dainty open-work reset as intricate as the tracery of a Gothic rose window-they are beautiful with the mysterious hid den beauty of snowflake and pollen grain.
 Some day, while you admire his little carved house. the caterpillar inside bites his way into the world under your very nose. He is very small and pre- sumably very green. But he has a dis tinct mind of his own. No sooner is he fairly on life's stage than he turns him self about and incontinently devours the exquisite little egg that sheltered him. He has his reasons. Empty egg shells advertise to plaintly to the greedy birds the whereabouts of a newborn, juicy worm. The last thing caterpil- lar coyets is publicity. He swallows his tracks with all possible speed. This duty-meal disposed of, he betakes him. self to the tip of the freshet leaf on his tWigs and settles down to enjoyment.
 When a caterpillar stops eating, you may be sure he is approaching a crisis in life. Ordinarily his little sharp man. l1ibles, working eIsewiseffaiul nth wtm dibles, working sidewise like sliding doors, are busy shipping from morn to dewy eve, or perhaps even from sunrise to sunrise. But when he has gorged himself until he is Literally too big for his skin, he ceases feeding, spins him. Self a close carpet of silk on leaf, tang1es his back feet in it, and settles down to wait for nature ito relieve the strained situation. There Is no time to examine him like this, when he is pre- pairing to exchange old clothes for new. You can slip him, leaf and all, under the microscope and discover many things. You won't admire his facial expression, for he looks like a particularly ill- e. o1,.,,s D,,& 1,i- a.,k over-supply of legs-he has 16 altogeth- er-is due to the fact that he has need of two different kinds. The three front pairs are respectable, jointed legs like those of a butterfly. But the rest are mere pedal Jumps, not unlike the stump feet of an elephant The jointed fore legs he uses standardization for hands; the back ones serve as valuable props, and since they end in set of sharp little hooks, they are also good to hang on by. You see, too, what the children call his "breathers," most informal arrangement of small openings called spiraeles, along his sides. There, too, beneath his rfandibles is the reason for his Wagging his head like caged hyena when he walks abroad. It is his spin
 
 catch his hooks in, he ceasely weaves an endless thread, fastening it now on one side, now on the other When you look at his inefficient semi-circles of parliamentary eyes you can understand why aacaterpillar snatched out of his natural surroundings looks so exceed lngiy foolish. He can't see within an 3 inch of his nose, and if you take him off his native food-plant he can do nothing but promenade in the vain hope of running upon another
 Just now he has no intention of promenading at all. For 24 hours he has posed like caterpillar of stone. Now however, something sens about to oc- cur. The caterpillar begins to worry < about in the most grotesque fashion Look closely and you will see that his skin Is cracked lengthwise just back of his head, and he has wriggled his old head skin down until it is over his eyes and is trying to wriggle it off altogeth- CT. He rubs his face vigorously with his little front legs, and scrapes it ner- vously back and forth on leaf, for all the world like a dog trying to get rid of a rnuzz1e. Meanwhile he makes vio- $ lent contortions with the rest of his < small person to work his legs free from the despised first skin. By the time the old headpiece falls he is ready to walk bodily out-a new creature. All his col ors are, frightened, and he himself is surprisingly enlarged. You can't in the least see how so sizable worm was ever got into so narrow 8 vestment. As for the old skin it remains glued to the leaf, aperfect transparent cast of the caterpillar down to the smallest detail of hairs and spines-remains, that is until the caterpillar having rested fo1 a time till his new coat has hardened devours it.
 If you want fun with your caterpillar rouse his wrath. He is slow, ind d.sputa- bly, slow. That Is because he knows that every bird of the air has his bright little eye cooked to catch his least ungarded movement, and that g cloud of wicked inchneumon flies vii bounce upon him at sight, and lay thei1 eggs in his poor little body. But he is far from poor-spirited or tame. ToucF him with a pencil and see him, "rea, up" He filings his 11umpy little head from side to side in fine fury, gnash- ing his mandibles together in a manner S calculated to strike terror to the heart of the most timorous foe. Sometimes that depends upon what sort of cater.