The caterpillar is brown, with a purplish or violet tinge, and freckled with grey; an indistinct line along the middle of the back and a creamy stripe along the sides, the latter is edged above with black; head, shining reddish-brown, freckled with darker brown. It feeds on bilberry, bearberry (_Arctostaphylos uva-ursi_), heather, sallow, birch, and hawthorn, and is to be found from May to July. The moth is out in August and September, and in its woodland and moorland haunts is to be seen sitting about on the dead stems of bracken, charred twigs and stems of heather, or on birch trunks, rocks, walls, etc. When thus resting, however, they very closely resemble twisted birch bark, grouse droppings, and other common objects occurring in the haunts of the species, so that its detection is not easy at first. {33} In England this species is found from Shropshire and Staffordshire northwards to Cumberland; thence through Scotland to Aberdeen and Sutherland. In Wales it has been obtained commonly near Rhos in the north. Abroad its range spreads to Amurland; and it occurs in North America, where it is known as _germana_, Morrison. THE EARLY GREY (_Xylocampa areola_). A typical specimen of this widely distributed and, at least in the southern half of England, rather common species, is shown on Plate 12, Fig. 7. A dark form has been named ab. _suffusa_, Tutt, and one with the fore wings of the typical grey colour, but with a pinkish flush, is ab. _rosea_, Tutt. The caterpillar (figured from a skin, on Plate 8, Fig. 2) is yellowish-brown, with a fine pale central line along the back, often only distinct on rings 1, 11, and 12, and always obscured by dark brown patches on 7 and 8; a blackish line low down along the sides. The body tapers towards each end, and especially so towards the small head. It lives upon honey-suckle, and feeds on the leaves at night, during May and June, or sometimes later. [Illustration: FIG. 1. EARLY GREY AT REST. (Photo by W. J. Lucas.)] The moth appears in March and April, and, in the daytime, is often met with at rest on posts, fences, and the trunks of trees; also upon stone walls, but seemingly less frequently, probably owing to the moth being then less easy to detect. At night it flies around sallow bushes and sometimes settles on the catkins, but is always on the alert. {34} THE SWORD-GRASS (_Calocampa exoleta_). Except that the pale grey brown fore wings are more clouded with blackish in some specimens than in others, there is little of importance to note. Usually there are two black wedges pointing inwards from the indistinct submarginal line, but occasionally one, or more rarely both, may be absent. (Plate 14, Figs. 3 [male] and 4 [female].)