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

through an overlapping drill. snap ping their heads back and forth in con- cert with a precision worthy of peak
 capped milkmaid chorus. The perform ance may fill you with mirth. not ter TOT. But that it does inspire dread in insectivorous creatures, you may dis cover by dropping a twig full of An tiOpa worms in a chicken yard. and Ob- serving the panic in the little chicks. If fortune should throw in your way the slug-like larva of the vivid little spring azure, you will have the oppor- tunity to watch his insect bodyguard Dozens of solicitous ants dance attend ance on him wherever he goes. snapping their little jaws viciously and waving their threatening feelers to ward off in- truders. No doubt they are invaluable protection from egg-laying ichneumon flies. In return for the watch they keep the caterpillar supplies the sugar loving ants with plenteous honey, They stroke him gently with their little fore legs, much as they do their tiny green eows-the aphides-and the slug gives
 them of his nectar.
 Ofttimes caterpillars resort to less 1 war-like means of protection. Some of | them curl up and drop to earth when trouble threatens, and you may find them in the long grass if you can. Some, like the red admiral. sew leaf into a nice little green cylinder and settle l down inside it to devour the work of | their own hands. When the tent Is too far eaten to afford protection, they sew
 up another leaf and begin on that. By far the celeverest device is that used by the viceroy caterpillar. It is he who l may be expected to emerge any min
 ute from that lone little egg on the poplar twig. When he does come out he | will set to work at once to snip off bits of leaf and fasten them together with silken threads into a loose little ball. This he secures by a single thread to | the leaf he feeds on, where the light ] thing continually stirs in the breeze. 1 Lok at the leaf and the swinging ball and you miss altogether the helpless worm beside it. Whenever the caterpfl- l lar changes his feeding ground he ] moves the leaf ball too, until at last he
 is big enough to dispense with such life preserver
 If you should chance to get one of these viceroy caterpillars late in the fall you would find that the autumn l brood. instead of turning into ! ichrysalides like well-regulated worms, sews themselves up in poplar leaves
 and pass the winter in the caterpillar
 state.
 I hope that the first of your caterpi-
 lars to mGmmify himself will be the
 striped Monarch worm. He oes 1t so royalty we'll. When he has moulted l four times and is a prosperous-lookin creature, quite two inches in length, he will bear watching. Soon he will begin | to betray symptoms of intense dissatis- faction with life. Milkweed no longer charms him; he foresakes his home plant and begins anervous march about l his prison. Be sure, then, that he has
 some firm support within easy reach; l for he is constrained to go into his chrysalis, and time presses. Watch l him closely when he has suited himself
 in a site He weaves a thick little but
 ton of silk and carefully tangles in it
 the hooks of his little hind feet After
 moments dubitation, all the other | lGSS ItldA1 tuS EdlEIpllIdI SWIuES HSad
 downward. It looks like anything but
 comfortable pose, for he curves his head up till it almost meets his tail: yet
 in that strained posture he remains contentedly for some 24 hours. At the
 close of that time he is a dull-looking thing, somewhat swollen about the
 head. But he is just ready to show you
 one of the prettiest things in nature. | The skin near his head, put to great
 strain by his curved position, splits, and
 the old sheath sarinks upward, reveal ing below a delicate green package So
 transparent that you can see the fold
 ed butterfly through the covering;
 wings, antennae and all.
 That lirnbless little package has one
 more feat to perform before 1t can call itself a proper chrysalis. It must fas-
 ten itself firmly; as yet it hangs by the
 shrivelled old skin. In some inscruta-
 ble fashion perhaps by nipping the lcaterpillar between it's movable body
 segments, it draws it's little pointed end out of the old clothes, and begins to reach painfully up to the silk mat above. A fall would be fatal By mighty stretchings and heavings of the
 whole chrysalis, success is won at last.
 The little hooked point, or cremaster, is
 worked securely into the silk: the sleep ing butterfly rides in safety. But 1t is no longer so frankly folded butterfly. The thin green walls have hardened and glisten now like emerald, and sun-
 dry gilt spots along its sides gleam like
 veritable little gold-headed nails.
 Only week or so elapses before the
 exquisite green of the precious parcel
 begins to give place to light purple, and the butterfly begins to show
 through. There are his dwarf wings,
 draped back gracefully from the front.
 even the black veins and the white
 spots clearly distinguishable through
 the thin glazed envelope. Eternal wig
 ilance is now the price of admission to
 the butterf1y's final opening. Tn the twinkling of an eye the little transpar-
 ent packet is rent, and opens outward,
 The butterfly draws his head promptly
 out of the chrysalis hood; frees his feet
 and graps the outer wall Of the chrysalis. One wrench and out come
 his DOT crumpled wings, and last of all
 his heavy abdomen. As he hangs wet
 and helpless from the empty case he Is more curious than beautiful. All the