274 



THE ANIMALS AND MAN 



ties which have descended from such escaped swarms. 

 The silkworm, Bombyx mori, has on the contrary been 



an artificially bred animal for five thousand years, and 



scores of races, 

 w r ith differently 

 colored and shaped 



FIG. 149. Tiger-banded variety of the Bagdad COCOOnS exist. The 

 silkworm race. (Natural size.) actual wild species 



from which the domesticated races are descended is not 

 known, but it is most likely some one of the several wild 

 species of Northern India. The cocoons of certain of 

 these wild Indian species are today still collected for the 

 silk and sold under the commercial name of "Tussoor" 

 silk. The ancient breeding and care of silkworms was 

 mostly done in China and Japan. Today it is carried on 

 even more extensively in France and Italy. 



