CHAPTER FOUK 



AMERICAN SILK-WORMS AND GIANT NIGHT- 

 BUTTERFLIES, MOTHS, OR MILLERS 



No matter how careful naturalists may be to 

 explain what a moth is, all people who are not 

 naturalists will continue to think that there is only 

 one kind of moth, the kind which eats up clothes. 

 Night-butterflies is too long a term, but the chil- 

 dren's name of miller is short, easily remembered, 

 and generally understood; besides, the insect is 

 called a miller because it is apparently covered 

 with dust. So we shall adopt that term. Fig. 67 

 shows the caterpillar. Fig. 68 the cocoon, and Fig. 

 69 the miller. 



It is what you might call a sporting proposi- 

 tion and great fun to collect millers. The surest 

 way to get good specimens is to raise the cater- 

 pillars from the eggs and feed them upon the leaves 

 they delight to eat. This you will find exceed- 

 ingly interesting. Another good way is to go out 

 and hunt the big caterpillars; trail them as ele- 

 phants in Africa were trailed, by the spoor. This 

 develops observation and the same sort of wood- 



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