l6 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Jan., 'iS 



writing to Doctor Howell, he placed me in correspondence 

 with the original finder of the cocoon, Mrs. Neal Adams, of 

 Lady Lake, Florida. I wrote her that I had consulted Mr. E. 

 W. Nelson, Chief of the Bureau of Biological Survey of the 

 Department of Agriculture, who had told me that in that part 

 of Florida the bluejay, the Florida jay, the white-breasted and 

 brown-headed nuthatches, the tufted titmouse and red-headed 

 woodpecker all have the habit of storing miscellaneous things. 

 From the size of the moonstones, he suspected the bluejay. I 

 asked her whether any one in her town had a pet crow, as that 

 might have been responsible. I then described the cecropia co- 

 coon, and asked whether this description corresponded with the 

 recollection of the person who found the cocoon. The letter 

 concluded as follows: "The cut moonstones found in its in- 

 terior, while of no especial value, are very pretty and may have 

 been prized by some one. I know that birds down there with 

 you are apt to be very familiar, and it is not impossible that 

 this especial thief entered a bedroom window and stole the 

 stones from the top of a bureau. It is a very interesting case." 

 Mrs. Adams replied that the cocoon corresponded exactly with 

 my description, and that it was found near her house in the 

 wheel-rut of a new clay road. The outer cocoon had been 

 gashed in some way, but the inner cocoon was opened by her, 

 and there she found the stones. She stated that no one to her 

 knowledge had a pet crow, but that wild crows were numerous, 

 as were the other birds mentioned in my letter. 



These moonstones were exhibited at the Entomological So- 

 ciety of Washington and at the Biological Society of Wash- 

 ington in the hope that some of the members might have found 

 or heard of similar instances. At the Entomological Society, 

 Mr. Schwarz stated that he remembered the notes in the 

 American Entomologist and that he had an indefinite idea that 

 he had seen something else published on the same subject, but 

 could not particularize. At the meeting of the Biological So- 

 ciety, Mr. Alexander Wetmore said that he had seen blue jays 

 stuff grains of corn and small acorns into "big cocoons." 



The note is sent to Entomological News in the hope that it 

 may result in a record of observations of a similar nature. 



