The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-09-01

! purpose. This dissoIves the gum that binds it's endless thread together. Pa { tient pushing at last parts the tough fiamentss a little round hole appears. i More dancing of the cocoon and out comes the red-broWn head. perhaps. of a giant cecropia, followed a second later | by two wonderful cinnamon feathers \ his plumey antcnnae. Bright-brown 1 furry legs reach out and fasten them selves on the outer edge of the opening, A moment later. with a mighty effort, the whole moth is free. When his heavy wings are dry and full-spread, what color harmony Is here. His body is cinnamon-red. and deep furred as an owls breast, His great wings are i done if softly blended pastel shades If gray and brown and pinkish white. Ex- quisite thing that he is. but for the zoo you might never have caught glimpse of him. save through the disfiguring medium of butterfly case; for his day is our night.
 When the viceroy caterpillar on your poplar twig goes into retirement and comes out looking like an own cousin to the monarch. you will be rightly aston ished The grotesque worm was so diff ferent from the striped sleekness of the ] monarch. Yet here is the viceroy col 1 ored like the monarch, marked like him, 1 but for two dark cross bands on it's back wings. and curiously like him in l flight and general behavior. More cu- rious even is the explanation. The monarch is protected by a peculiarly evil personal flavor which makes him impossible eating The viceroy is not, unfortunately for him. distasteful to birds. There he seeks protection under the livery of the nauseous-tiavored monarch.
 A sweet-fern caterpillar impersonates a rusty, toothed, sweet-fern leaf to ad- miration. remaining for hours glued to 1 the stem by it's hind feet, while the rest of it's queer knobby body tips off into space. He is not hypnotized; single silken thread supports him in the deceptive pose. Now they will not per init you to say that the good God made the little worm his marvellous mas querade dress, and taught him to hang himself up like leaf. You must be- 1 lieve that it was because only such>'of the sweet-fern caterrillars are assumed this dress and this amazing habit sur vived and replenished the earth, that i in time the whole family came to do 1 this thing But you cannot help in- : quirirg about the very first caterpillar, 1 how he knew. However, you have to get along with the two catch-words- natural selection and the survival of the fittest-to tell you this. and why the l-.. d. rx-t,, tstt indeterminate color of dead leaf; why the buttercup butterfly Is golden yellow; 1 why chrysalides on tree trunks or fence rails are wood color while chrysalldes on green things are always green; and many another like curious thing, The puzzle only deepens when you try eX periments upon caterpillars in captiv- ity. Put part of the caterpfllars of the same kind into dark surroundings lust at the time they are meditating retire
 ment from public life. The chrysalides i will be dark brown, or black. Mean time. the other worms of the species, provided with white or gilt back
 grounds. will tur nout chrysaldes of light gold color. Is the wise little worm to get no credit for the protective se- f selection? Verify, meager are the con- ! solations of modern science.
 When your colony of well-drilled Antiopa caterpillars have separated each to it's own angular sleeping-box and came out whole brood of purple i brown. yellow -bordered Mourning C1oaks you will most certainly hear as we'll as you see those butterflies. Alight on window ledge, "Trauermantel." as the Germans call him. slowly fans his rich wings in the sun. Put your ear down and listen closely A faint sound, scarcely more than a rustic like the slow abrasion of roughened surfaces, accompa nies the waving of the wings. Butterfly fanciers profess to have heard, what I never did, a sharp click ing sound made by insects on the wing It seems that butterflies are provided with sort of file. made up of rough opposing scales on the overlapping sur faces of the front and hind wings No doubt all butterflies make tiny sounds audible to finer ears than CUTS. That Is why on lighting they smart1y clcse their wings once or twice, to give warning, perhaps, of their intention of stalking out claim. Certainly the quick snap ping together of the wings is a charac- teristic motion of an angered butterfly. No doubt myriads of such toneless sounds go to make up the drowsy hum of summer fields. Another amazing fact which life among the butterflies may reveal is that they are perfumed as
 delicately. nay more de1icately, than
 any flower. It is an elusive fragrance,
 about which no two persons ever agree.
 The Spring Azure is said to carry an
 odor like that of new stirred loam in
 the spring. or the crushed stems of vio-
 lets. The Monarch has a faint sugges-
 ton of honey odor; the Cabbage butter
 fly faint fragrance of syringa blo'k soms. The perfume goes in most cas ses with the male fly He wears it in a
 little scent pouch on his wing, and
 uses it in lieu of buttonlole bouquet,
 to make himself attractive in the eyes of the 1adies.-Mary Bronson Hartt in
 the Boston Transcript
 DEATH OF A CONVICT.