It is easy to find the cocoons these caterpillars spin, because
they are the largest woven by any moth, and placed in such a variety
of accessible spots. They can be found in orchards, high on branches,
and on water sprouts at the base of trees. Frequently they are spun
on swamp willows, box-elder, maple, or wild cherry. Mr. Black once
found for me the largest cocoon I ever have seen; a pale tan colour
with silvery lights, woven against the inside of a hollow log.
Perhaps the most beautiful of all, a dull red, was found under the
flooring of an old bridge crossing a stream in the heart of the swamp,
by a girl not unknown to fiction, who brought it to me. In a deserted
orchard close the Wabash, Raymond once found a pair of empty
cocoons at the foot of a big apple tree, fastened to the same
twigs, and within two inches of each other.
But the most wonderful thing of all occurred when Wallace Hardison,
a faithful friend to my work, sawed a board from the roof of his
chicken house and carried to me twin Cecropia cocoons, spun so
closely together they were touching, and slightly interwoven.
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