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tifully soft grey velvet or short plush. The surface is perfectly even and very smooth to 

 the touch. Since the specimen was received I have shown it to a great many, and until 

 placed under the microscope together with one of the feathers with which the pile was 

 made, it has proved altogether too much for anyone's credulity to believe that it was the 

 work of insects. When magnified, however, the identity of the minute threads of the 

 pile with the portions of the plumules of the feathers with which the pillow-case had been 

 formerly stuffed, is made quite evident. The pillow-case was made of ordinary strong 

 cotton ticking, conspicuously striped with wide blue, and narrow black and red stripes. 

 After the remarkable operation described below the blue and red stripes were entirely 

 obliterated, and the black stripes could only be discerned faintly through the feather felt- 

 ing. Miss Eaton gives the following particulars with regard to this new fabric : 



" The pillow was made in the fall of 1889 and was filled with turkey feathers, which 

 as you probably know are very downy near the base, and it is with portions of this down 

 that the pillow is covered. The pillow was made in 1889 and I opened it in the winter 

 of 1891, during that time it had very little actual use. People who slept on this pillow 

 made no remarks about it ; but I found it in the morning more often on the floor than 

 in the bed. It remained for about six months in an unused room, when one day think- 

 ing nothing of the matter I placed it on my own bed and I found that I actually could not 

 sleep for the noise, which was like something crawling slowly back and forth. I turned 

 it over several times ; but it always seemed right under my head. Then I began to think 

 that I had discovered the reason why other people had thrown it on to the floor so 

 often, and I myself threw it out of bed. I then left it alone for about six weeks and 

 tried it again ; but the noise was still there. I then put it on one side thinking that 

 when I had time I would open it and get the insects for my collection. It was some 

 time before I found a convenient opportunity, I then took it into an empty room, put a 

 sheet on the floor and cut open the pillow-case and was much surprised to find it in the 

 condition you see by the specimen I send you. The feathers were entirely stripped of 

 their down. It was the insects I was looking for though, so I stirred the feathers up with 

 a stick and the fine particles of down rose in such a cloud, that I was obliged to tie a 

 towel over my nose and mouth to keep from being choked. From the noise that I had heard 

 and the destruction, I looked for an insect about the size of a grasshopper at least ; but 

 saw nothing but the little thing I send. There were about a hundred ; but 1 saved only 

 a few. I could not believe that I had found the right insects, I thought they must be 

 larger. I did not actually see the insects alive amongst the feathers but only found the 

 cocoons." 



Miss Eaton kindly forwarded me specimens of the injured feathers and also cocoons 

 of the moth Tinea pellionella, which she had taken from the pillow. These cocoons show- 

 under the miscroscope that they, like the felting of the pillow-case, are also composed of 

 the debris of the injured feathers. The minute bristles of the plumules of feathers, when 



examined under a microscope show plainly their barbed 

 nature by which they serve so admirably the purposes 

 required of them in causing the plumules to adhere 

 lightly to those touching them in the feather to which 

 they belong; but at the same time allowing the plumules 

 to be separated without injury, and then binding them 

 together again. It is owing to these very barbs on the 

 particles, that the felting of the cotton pillow-case was 

 possible, the feathers having been cut up into fine 

 morsels, these are rendered sufliciently rigid in propor- 

 tion to their length to work their way through the 

 feathers little by little, every time the pillow is moved, 

 by reason of their barbs which all point one way, until 

 the pillow-case is reached, here, if short enough, they 

 work their way a short distance into the cotton cloth 

 Jig. 34. Beaver fur magnified 250 ^^d remain fixed there by their barbs. The beautiful 

 diameters. evenness of the pile is, I imagine, due to the fact that 



unless the particles are very short they will not be 



