I2 THE TRAVELS OF A BUTTERFLY.

a spider’s egg ; and you would think, a little butterfly might be
expected to come out of a butterfly’s egg. Nothing of the sort
happens. Out of each of these round specks on the cabbage-
leaf came a very small caterpillar, which could hardly be seen,
for it was so little, and so exactly the same colour as the place
on which it was born. But although it was not a perfect
butterfly yet, and had no wings, this small worm had a good
notion of what to do. It began by biting its way through the
tough egg-shell—which it ate up. As soon as that was gone
it set to work at the edge of the cabbage-leaf with little jaws,
which munched from side to side, instead of up and dawn, like
yours and mine.

Each of the tiny worms had sixteen little feet, with hooks
or hairs to cling with at the end; six eyes on each side of
its head; a good appetite and plenty to eat. What could a
caterpillar want more ?

How they did eat! One could almost see them grow;
they devoured the green food so fast. As the days went on the
cabbage-leaf was all gone, except the hard veins, which they
could not bite; and some of the little family had to travel east
while the rest went west to find a new dining-hall.

Then a mother chaffinch came down one morning and picked
up a dozen or so of the caterpillars, laying them across her
beak one after another with the heads and tails dangling out on
each side. She carried them away for her young ones in the
nest at home. ‘Twink! twink!” said she, as soon as her beak
was empty, and went back again to look for more.

She soon cleared the cabbage bed of all but a few cater-
pillars, which lay snugly hidden the wrong side of the leaf,
where her bright eyes had not yet spied them. “Twink!” she
cried again, wiping her beak. ‘‘ What a nourishing meal for
the little ones! I must go to the rose-bushes now.”