out fifteen feet high and
clustered with little twigs from top to bottom. I plant one of them
straight up in the tuft, beside the first nest. I clear the surrounding
ground, because the bushy vegetation might easily, thanks to threads
carried by the wind, divert the emigrants from the road which I have laid
out for them. The other bamboo I set up in the middle of the yard, all
by itself, some few steps from any outstanding object. The second nest
is removed as it is, shrub and all, and placed at the bottom of the tall,
ragged distaff.

The events expected are not long in coming. In the first fortnight in
May, a little earlier in one case, a little later in the other, the two
families, each presented with a bamboo climbing-pole, leave their
respective wallets. There is nothing remarkable about the mode of
egress. The precincts to be crossed consist of a very slack net-work,
through which the outcomers wriggle: weak little orange-yellow beasties,
with a triangular black patch upon their sterns. One morning is long
enough for the whole family to make its appearance.

By degrees, the emancipated youngsters climb the nearest twigs, clamber
to the top, and spread a few threads. Soon, they gather in a compact,
ball-shaped cluster, the size of a walnut. They remain motionless. With
their heads plunged into the heap and their sterns projecting, they doze
gently, mellowing under the kisses of the sun. Rich in the possession of
a thread in their belly as their sole inheritance, they prepare to
disperse over the wide world.

Let us create a disturbance among the globular group by stirring it with
a straw. All wake up at once. The cluster softly dilates and spreads,
as though set in motion by some centrifugal force; it becomes a
transparent orb wherein thousands and thousands of tiny legs quiver and
shake, while threads are extended along the way to be followed. The
whole work resolves itself into a delicate veil which swallows up the
scattered family. We then see an exquisite nebula against whose
opalescent tapestry the tiny animals gleam like twinkling orange stars.

This straggling state, though it last for hours, is but temporary. If
the air grow cooler, if rain threaten, the spherical group reforms at
once. This is a protective measure. On the morning after a shower, I
find the families on either bamboo in as good condition as on the day
before. The silk veil and the pill formation have sheltered them wel