278 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY. 



A companion was saved from a like Herodian end by being removed 

 from the earth before he was attacked, and then suspended from 

 the roof of the cage in a twisted cone of brown paper, where lie 

 developed into a " death's-head " moth. 



The cage was a light movable frame of wood, just fitting inside 

 the rim round the table, and about two feet high. Over this was 

 stretched mosquito net for the sides, ends, and top. The table thus 

 formed the floor of the cage, but to allow of its being more easily- 

 kept clean, it was carpeted with large sheets of coarse brown paper. 

 The dimensions of the cage gave ample space for the butterflies and 

 moths to stretch and dry their wings on emerging from their chry- 

 salises. But to avoid the confusion mentioned above, it would have 

 been better had the cage been divided into compartments. In the 

 middle of one of the long sides was the door, the frame of which, made 

 of the same wood as that of the cage, was about ten inches wide, and of 

 the same height as the cage. It was closed by a loose curtain of mos- 

 quito net tacked to the bottom of the cage, folding over the top, and 

 wide enough to well overlap the doorway on each side. This was 

 fastened by loose strips of thin bamboo sprung in against the uprights 

 and across the top of the doorway. It was wide enough to allow a 

 hand and arm to pass in to manipulate the contents of the cage, or a 

 head to observe its inmates, without moving the cage at the risk of 

 disturbing such caterpillars and cocoons as might be clinging to the 

 sides or top. It would, however, be convenient, and for a cage divided 

 into compartments necessary, instead of one small door in the centre 

 of the side, to have the whole side constructed on the same principle. 



In the cage we put some vases, standing steadily on wide heavy bot- 

 toms, for water, in which to immerse the stalks of sprigs from the 

 food-plants of our caterpillars. The tops of such vases should be cover- 

 ed with cards pierced with holes, through which to pass the stalks 

 into the water, for we found that to leave them uncovered resulted 

 in the death by drowning of some caterpillars, who crawled down the 

 stalks into the water, and were too fat or too stupid to turn round 

 and crawl up again. Besides these vases, we put into the cage 

 some boxes of earth for the accommodation of those insects who 

 pass their pupahood underground, and a few chunks of soft rotten 

 wood for those who prefer that element. Some twisted cones of brown 

 paper in the corners offered quiet seclusion for such caterpillars as 

 seek retirement from the world, without digging their own graves, 

 making their own coffins, or weaving their own shrouds. 



