OBSEUVATIONS. 



asi 



contrary, to invigorate them, and 

 they grew rapidly. Shortly after- 

 wards, however, one died, appa- 

 rently in the attempt to move from 

 one to another of the trees. The 

 changes proceeded regularly, the 

 worms increasing wonderfully in 

 size in the course of a very few days. 

 One, however, remained in the waxy 

 stage, and seemed utterly unable to 

 divest itself of that skin. Mons. 

 Blain's description of these changes 

 is as follows : — " In the fourth age 

 the waxy substance still exists, but 

 the body and tubercles from white 

 pass little by little to green ; the 

 head and the feet become of a beau- 

 tiful golden yellow, as well as the 

 last segment. At that time it 

 attains from twenty to twenty-five 

 millimetres. In the fifth age the 

 green colouring becomes more de- 

 cided ; the extremity of the tuber- 

 cles is blue ; it has on the last 

 segment a blue border, as well as a 

 little speck of the same colour at 

 the rise of its membranous feet. It 

 quickly acquires a length of from 

 eighty to ninety millimetres ; in 

 this condition it eats less, its 

 colouring becomes yellowish, after 

 which it loses no time in finding 

 one or two leaflets, which it fastens 

 firmly to the principal stalk, in 

 order to fix its cocoon." On Friday 

 the 29th of July, between seven and 

 eight o'clock in the evening, the 

 gardener noticed that one was spin- 

 No. 21, March 1. 



ning, and before morning it had 

 covered itself up entirely. On 

 Sunday, the 31st, another began, 

 and, by two o'clock, bad made con- 

 siderable progress, but, rain coming 

 on, prevented me observing it. 

 After this there never was a day 

 when cocoons were not begun, and 

 by the afternoon of the 3rd of 

 August (the last opportunity I had 

 of seeing the worms), twelve had 

 already covered themselves up. On 

 my return home the gardener re- 

 ported to me that, in the week 

 beginning Sunday, the 14th, three 

 died, owing, it may be supposed, to 

 a violent hailstorm, for they never 

 seemed to thrive after it. This loss 

 left only one remaining to spin, the 

 one the changes of which had been 

 so protracted. On Saturday, the 

 20th August, I saw it ; it had grown 

 to be larger than any, and appeared 

 extremely vigorous. Up to the 

 evening of Monday, the 22nd, it 

 was eating voraciously ; but, on 

 Tuesday morning, it was found at 

 the foot of its tree, and it died soon 

 afterwards ; the great cold of the 

 night was probably the cause. Wed- 

 nesday, 24th, gathered all the 

 cocoons, fifteen in number, fearing 

 that, as the thermometer had been 

 down in the night to the freezing 

 point, the cold might injure the 

 chrysalids. Friday, 20th, divested 

 the cocoons of all leaf, and hung 

 them up in a temperature seldom 



