open. The case before us is of a stone-gray color, with a black stripe
along the middle, and with rings of the same color round each opening.
Had the caterpillar fed on blue or yellow cloth, the case would, of
course, have been of those colors. Other cases, made by larvae which had
been eating loose cotton, were quite irregular in form, and covered
loosely with bits of cotton thread, which the little tailor had not
trimmed off.

Days go by. A vigorous course of dieting on its feast of wool has given
stature to our hero. His case has grown uncomfortably small. Shall he
leave it and make another? No housewife is more prudent and saving. Out
come those scissor-jaws, and, lo! a fearful rent along each side of one
end of the case. Two wedge-shaped patches mend the breach; the
caterpillar retires for a moment and reappears at the other end; the
scissors are once more pulled out; two rents appear, to be filled up by
two more patches or gores, and our caterpillar once again breathes more
freely, laughs and grows fat upon horse hair and lambs' wool. In this
way he enlarges his case till he stops growing.

[Illustration: 59. 58. 57.

Early Stages of the Clothes Moth.]

Our caterpillar seeming to be full-grown, and apparently out of
employment, we cut the end of his case half off. Two or three days
after, he had mended it from the inside, drawing the two edges together
by silken threads, and, though he had not touched the outside, yet so
neatly were the two parts joined together that we had to search for some
time, with a lens, to find the scar.

To keep our friend busy during the cold, cheerless weather, for it was
mid-winter, we next cut a third of the case entirely off. Nothing
daunted, the little fellow bustled about, drew in a mass of the woolly
fibres, filling up the whole mouth of his den, and began to build on
afresh, and from the inside, so that the new-made portion was smaller
than the rest of the case. The creature worked very slowly, and the
addition was left in a rough, unfinished state.

We could easily spare these voracious little worms hairs enough to serve
as food, and to afford material for the construction of their paltry
cases; but that restless spirit that ever urges on all beings endowed
with life and the power of motion, never forsakes the young clothes moth
for a moment. He will not be forced to drag his heavy case over rough
hairs and furzy wool, hence with his keen jaws he cuts his way through.
Thu