, as we have
seen, in earliest infancy, when he swallowed his cradle.

On Plate I. are shown the chief varieties of form taken by the caterpillars
of our British butterflies, and a glance at these will give, better than
verbal descriptions, a general idea of their characteristics.

Their most usual shape is elongated and almost cylindrical, or slightly
tapering at one or both ends. Of these, some are smooth, or only studded
with short down or hairs; such are the caterpillars of the Swallow-tail
butterfly (fig. 1), of the Brimstone (fig. 2), Clouded Yellows, and Garden,
and other white butterflies. Others, of the same _general_ form, are beset
with long branched spines, making perfect _chevaux-de-frise_; such {10} are
those of the Peacock, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, and the Silvery
Fritillaries.

The caterpillars of another large section have the body considerably
thicker in the middle (rolling-pin shaped), and the tail part two-forked,
or _bifurcate_. This form belongs to the numerous family that includes the
Meadow-brown (fig. 3), the Ringlets, and many others.

The _bizarre_ personage, at fig. 4, turns to the graceful White Admiral
butterfly.

The Purple Emperor begins his royal career in the curious form shown at
fig. 5--a shape unique among British butterflies, as beseems that of their
sovereign; and he carries a coronet on his brow already.

All those beautiful little butterflies called the Hair-streaks (fig. 9),
the Blues (fig. 10), and the Coppers, have very short and fat caterpillars,
that remind one forcibly of wood-lice--a shape shared also by that small
butterfly with a big name, the Duke of Burgundy Fritillary (fig. 8), an
insect very distinct from the Fritillaries above mentioned with thorny
caterpillars.

The _legs of a caterpillar are usually sixteen in number_, and composed of
two distinct kinds, viz. of _six true legs_, answering to those of the
perfect insect, and placed on the foremost segments of the body; and of
_ten_ others, called "_prolegs_;" temporary legs, used principally for
strengthening the creature's hold upon leaf or branch.

Like the rest of its body, the caterpillar's head widely {11} differs in
structure from that of the perfect insect, being furnished with a pair of
jaws, horny and strong, befitting the heavy work they have to get through,
and shaped like pincers, opening and shutting from side to side, instead of
working up and down after the manner of the jaws in vertebrate