ly first in this direction, then in that, by
turns; and a new egg is lodged in each space between two adjoining eggs
in the previous row. The extent of the oscillation determines the
length of the row, which is longer or shorter according to the layer's
fancy.

The hatching takes place in about a week. It is almost simultaneous for
the whole mass: as soon as one caterpillar comes out of its egg, the
others come out also, as though the natal impulse were communicated
from one to the other. In the same way, in the nest of the Praying
Mantis, a warning seems to be spread abroad, arousing every one of the
population. It is a wave propagated in all directions from the point
first struck.

The egg does not open by means of a dehiscence similar to that of the
vegetable-pods whose seeds have attained maturity; it is the new-born
grub itself that contrives an exit-way by gnawing a hole in its
enclosure. In this manner, it obtains near the top of the cone a
symmetrical dormer-window, clean-edged, with no joins nor unevenness of
any kind, showing that this part of the wall has been nibbled away and
swallowed. But for this breach, which is just wide enough for the
deliverance, the egg remains intact, standing firmly on its base. It is
now that the lens is best able to take in its elegant structure. What
it sees is a bag made of ultra-fine gold-beater's skin, translucent,
stiff and white, retaining the complete form of the original egg. A
score of streaked and knotted lines run from the top to the base. It is
the wizard's pointed cap, the mitre with the grooves carved into
jewelled chaplets. All said, the Cabbage-caterpillar's birth-casket is
an exquisite work of art.

The hatching of the lot is finished in a couple of hours and the
swarming family musters on the layer of swaddling-clothes, still in the
same position. For a long time, before descending to the fostering
leaf, it lingers on this kind of hot-bed, is even very busy there. Busy
with what? It is browsing a strange kind of grass, the handsome mitres
that remain standing on end. Slowly and methodically, from top to base,
the new-born grubs nibble the wallets whence they have just emerged. By
to-morrow, nothing is left of these but a pattern of round dots, the
bases of the vanished sacks.

As his first mouthfuls, therefore, the Cabbage-caterpillar eats the
membranous wrapper of his egg. This is a regulation diet, for I have
never seen one of the little grubs allow itsel