THE KNTOMOLOGIST. 343 



tlio subject of these laniiliar little cocoons, for of a certainty 

 they are the progeny of veritable "goats," and possess the 

 genuine fragrance of their sires at whatever period the thread 

 of their existence may be cut by the parasite within. 



According to rule the perfect goat-moth ought to eschew 

 sweets and live on air, since it is arranged among the Bom- 

 byces, a tribe to which Nature is supposed to have denied 

 even the semblance of a mouth. But the goat-moths them- 

 selves can't see tlie matter in this abstemious light, and sip 

 liquid sweets wherever they can be found, buiug especial 

 topers of the sugared beer with which the entomologist 

 paints the trunks as a lure for Noctuge. This propensity is 

 very puzzling to that large class of entomologists whom my 

 friend Mr. Stain ton characterises by the grandiloquent name 

 of " incipients," and consequently these young gentlemen 

 record the fact, as often as it intrudes itself on their notice, 

 as a discovery in our science. I am always gratified to 

 receive such notices, because they imply not merely ob- 

 servation, but reflection also ; and I invariably hand to the 

 communicant a private explanation of the phenomenon, in 

 order to save him from that banter which often assails the 

 discoverer of a mare's nest. 



It is quite impossible for the trees which have been de- 

 stroyed by the carpenter caterpillars as they are termed, that 

 is the larva3 of the goat-moth, the leopard-moth, and the 

 various species of Sesidae ; I repeat it is impossible for such 

 trees to escape the notice of anyone possessed of eyes, and 

 knowing how to use them. Let those who doubt this take a 

 ticket by the London Bridge and Victoria Railway, passing 

 through the Crystal Palace, and let them return by the South 

 London Railway (a smaller circle), crossing the main roads 

 to Wandsworth, Clapham, Brixton, Denmark Hill and Peck- 

 ham Rye, and thus cutting through suburban establishments, 

 the proprietors of which had believed themselves settled for 

 life, and had indulged that taste for ornamental planting 

 which is so characteristic of the well-to-do Englishman, 

 every proprietor believing he is creating a terrestrial paradise 

 of his own. Alas ! how futile are our calculations ; how vain 

 are our aspirations. The owner foi'etold the advent of a 

 forest shady as Vallombrosa : Bojnlis viisqae fcrreis aliler 

 visum est. That stag-headed tree (Fig. 1) is the work of a 



