How does he do it? He eats part of the leaf away to the mid-vein. Then he bends the lower part together, with silk. He fastens the edges tight and lines the inside with silk. Then he covers the outside with silk, and binds the nest to the twig with a silk thread, by crawling around and around, drawing the silk with him. The fierce winter storms will not tear off this house, which he has bound to the tree. The silk he uses is of a brown, dry-leaf color. When the house is made, he crawls in, head first. The knobbed hind end of his body fills up the open part of the nest. Did you ever hear of caterpillars called “woolly-bears,” because of their furry bodies? This caterpillar has a little cousin, who makes his winter home of a bent birch leaf. The color of his silk, and the knobbed end of his body, are just the gray-purple of young birch buds. So, in the spring, no bird notices him. Thus, while the snow flies, these caterpillars lie safe in their warm homes. They are torpid. Early in the spring they become pupæ, and then butterflies. Some butterflies pass the winter as eggs, some as caterpillars, some as pupæ. Some butterflies have two or more broods in the summer. Thus we have new butterflies every week. Full-grown butterflies sometimes live over winter. They come out in the spring, looking rather shabby, and with the edges of their wings broken. When frost comes, they creep into some crack, or under a piece of tree-bark, or down among the roots. As they lay their wings flat against each other, a small crevice will hold them. But the glad time of the butterflies is in the summer, when they have wings, honey, and sunshine. Some live from May until September. Some come out in April, and live only through May. Some wait until July and August. Others come for a little time in the spring, and a second brood in October. Of these many lie torpid in cracks over winter. At night, and during rainy days, butterflies hide, as they do in cold weather. They seldom fly abroad before nine in the morning. Between four and five in the afternoon they begin to steal off to bed. They are out in full force in those bright, hot noon hours, when the flowers are at their best. Happy butterfly, he flits about in the sun and drinks honey all the time of roses! FOOTNOTES: [22] Nature Reader, No. 1, p. 54. LESSON XXV. JOSEPH’S COAT. Many butterflies live alone. But some seem to go in what we call a swarm. A “flight” of butterflies is a better name for many together than “a swarm.” It is more common to see a number of caterpillars together than many butterflies. The large, gay-colored butterflies are generally seen only by one, two, or three, at a time. No doubt you have seen a piece of damp ground, which looks as if it had burst into blossom, so many yellow butterflies have lit upon it. They are fond of moisture.