If you had looked at the twigs of these trees, just after the leaves fall in the autumn, you might have thought some fairy had been putting belts and bracelets upon them. Around the twigs were little even bands of beads. These beads were the eggs of a moth. As soon as the caterpillars come out of these eggs, they unite in spinning their large silken nests, or tents. There they live together, until they have grown to nearly full size. Then they bite holes in the nest and travel off, each its own way. When the caterpillar is full-grown, it spins a nice, thin, clear cocoon, and powders it all over with yellow dust. When the moth comes out, it has yellowish wings with brown bands. It appears in July, and at once goes off to the orchards. There, in the autumn, it lays its eggs in rings around the twigs. This moth rests with its wings folded against its body like a cloak. Many moths fold their wings cloak-wise, instead of spreading them out flat, when they rest. There is a very beautiful large moth, which has a curious caterpillar, about which I must tell you. Whenever this caterpillar changes his skin, he puts on a new color. At first he is black, and so hairy that he looks like a little hedgehog. His next skin is a gray-green, with jet-black hairs and dots. The third skin is light green, with five rows of black dots, a number of clear, yellow spots, and two splendid red spots, like buttons. The fourth coat is blue, with black and red buttons. Then his last coat is green, with orange buttons. He now spins a cocoon. It is double. The outside is tough and skin-like. The inner part is of softest silk. This caterpillar is found in the south. I should like you to see the caterpillars of the sphinx moth eating. This moth gets its name from an odd way the caterpillar has of resting. It lifts up about half of its body, and holds it stiff, and quite still. People think it looks like a great stone image in Egypt called the sphinx. The sphinx moth lays its eggs on the top sprays of a weed called the spurge. This weed has a milky juice. The seed grows in a little nut-like pod or case. The caterpillar of the sphinx hatches from the egg among the tender green top leaves. These will make its food. At once it begins to eat. It grows fast. As it is greedy, and likes spurge, it eats up all the plant but the roots. The caterpillar eats the plant from the top down. When it comes to a seed pod it seems to say, “Now for a treat!” It sits up in its funny way, and takes a seed case between its front feet, as a monkey would hold a nut in its paws. It holds the pod against its mouth with its front feet, and gnaws away at it, until it is all gone. When one plant is stripped bare, off the caterpillars go to another. There they begin at the lower leaves, and eat upward. The lower leaves are coarse and hard. Why do they eat them? Why do they not climb up for better leaves?