. Wild nature's ways . seeds, andthereby, no doubt, frequently deceive even thesharpeyesof hungry birds. The example depictedin the illustration opposite is very difficult to findwhen it has flown a few yards away, and alightedamongst thousands of ripe grass seeds, which itmatches to a nicety in coloration. The plume moth is evidently not countedamongst the desirable edible trifles which insect-eating birds hunt after all day long, for it suspendsits conspicuous body in all sorts of avian hauntswithout appearing to suffer harm through thepublicity in which it indulges. INSECTS AT WORK AND PLAY
. Wild nature's ways . seeds, andthereby, no doubt, frequently deceive even thesharpeyesof hungry birds. The example depictedin the illustration opposite is very difficult to findwhen it has flown a few yards away, and alightedamongst thousands of ripe grass seeds, which itmatches to a nicety in coloration. The plume moth is evidently not countedamongst the desirable edible trifles which insect-eating birds hunt after all day long, for it suspendsits conspicuous body in all sorts of avian hauntswithout appearing to suffer harm through thepublicity in which it indulges. INSECTS AT WORK AND PLAY. 137 Many caterpillars are protected by loopers, as they are called, fix themselves bytheir hind legs to a branch, and by making theirbodies stand out rigidly from it give themselvesthe appearance of little twigs, as shown in theillustrations on page 139. The devastation wrought bybutterflies, moths, and beetlesin the caterpillar stageof their existenceamongst plantsis some-times ap- MIMICKINGGRASS MOTH. /. palling. Wholeforests are de-nuded of their leaves,and hedgerows transfiguredin their appearance from the vernalwealth of summer to the beggarlybareness and brown desolation ofwinter. Our first illustration (p. 140) showsa portion of a common ragwort killed by caterpillarsof the Cinnabar moth, and the second (p. 141) acolony of processionals destroying a hazel leaf—the ninth attacked in their all-consuming advancefrom the end of the branch. The speed at which these creatures can eatis nothing less than marvellous. Last spring Imade some observations on the gastronomical 138 WILD NATURES WAYS.
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