Many people mentioned in connexion with the specimens they brought
me have been more than kind in helping to collect the material
this volume contains; but its publication scarcely would have been
possible to me had it not been for the enthusiasm of one girl who
prefers not to be mentioned and the work of a seventeen-year-old
boy, Raymond Miller. He has been my sole helper in many difficult
days of field work among the birds, and for the moths his interest
reached such a pitch that he spent many hours afield in search of
eggs, caterpillars, cocoons, and moths, when my work confined me
to the cabin. He has carried to me many of my rarest cocoons,
and found in their native haunts several moths needed to complete
the book. It is to be hoped that these wonderful days afield have
brought their own compensation, for kindness such as his I never
can reward adequately. The book proves my indebtedness to the
Deacon and to Molly-Cotton. I also owe thanks to Bob Burdette Black,
the oldest and warmest friend of my bird work, for many fine moths
and cocoons, and to Professor R. R. Rowley for the laborious task
of scientifically criticizing this book and with unparalleled
kindness lending a helping hand where an amateur stumbled.



CHAPTER II MOTHS, EGGS, CATERPILLARS, WINTER QUARTERS


If you are too fastidious to read this chapter, it will be your
permanent loss, for it contains the life history, the evolution of
one of the most amazingly complicated and delicately beautiful
creatures in existence. There are moths that come into the world,
accomplish the functions that perpetuate their kind, and go out,