216 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



hood where the ants might hve peaceably, and that they should remove 

 thither at once under pain of excommunication. The sentence was read 

 in a loud voice at the mouth of the ant-hills, when, mirabile didti, immedi- 

 ately millions of ants came out, forming themselves into long and dense 

 columns, and proceeded at once to the field assigned them abandoning 

 their former dwellings. So saith the Rev. Father Manoel Bernardes, in 

 his " Nova Floresta ;" and he saw the records of the pleadings and pro- 

 ceedings himself. 



The tribunals were generally very loath to proceed to extremities and 

 exorcise these litde sinners. This was due partly to the milk of human 

 kindness that flowed beneath the towered heads of the priestly judges ; 

 and partly because it was noticed that, upon some occasions, after having 

 been anathematised, the noxious animals, instead of " withering off the face 

 of the earth " (as they were expected to do and ought to have done), 

 actually increased and multiplied, and became more destructive than 

 before. This terrible obstinacy and depravity was deemed due to the 

 malevolent hatred of Satan, who is, at certain times and periods, permitted 

 to annoy and torment the sons of men. 



Sometimes the opponents of the poor insects took an unfair advantage 

 of them, and would not give them a chance of making themselves heard 

 in Court. St. Bernard was preaching one day, when a number of flies 

 entered the church, and disturbed the auditors by their buzzing. The 

 saint excommunicated them, and the next day all the flies were found 

 dead, covering the pavement Avitli their bodies. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Captures. — Dear Sir,—l\. may be a matter of interest to record the 

 abundance of large silk worms this season in the neighborhood of London, 

 Ont. Since the fall of the leaves the cocoons have easily been detected, 

 and my friend, Mr. B. Bayly, and I have made the following captures 

 with very litde trouble, and in a very circumscribed district: Telea 

 Polyphemus, 44; Attacus Cecropia, 51 : Hyperchiria lo., 20. 



Lawrence Baynes Reed. 



