112 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
unless you have a large quantity of moths. To satisfy myself 
that it is a mistaken supposition, on the part of natives, that the 
escaped male moths never returned to the place, I had several 
distinctive marks made on the males that emerged from my 
cocoons in the evening before they had time to fly away, and 
found that they returned not only the next morning, but many 
following ones. At 3 to 4 a.m., as customary, I used to go and 
examine my female moths, and satisfy myself that each female 
had a male; and for those that had none, wild males were 
caught. It is a well-established fact that a female moth that has 
not been visited by the male the day she comes out from the 
cocoon, before dawn, will never be approached by one again; so 
that female is a loss to the person rearing it. I was no little 
astonished, when I visited my moths in the morning, to find a 
great number of spare male moths flying round and round the 
females; in fact they were troublesome; but the minute daylight 
is seen they all vanish. 
At this period, as usual, I had all these bows taken into my 
house and suspended in a room, keeping them away from the 
wall, as protection against ants and rats. The females and males 
remained together the whole day till sunset, that is, about twenty- 
four hours from the time they emerged from the cocoons. The 
males then leave the females and fly away, which they are allowed 
to do. The females, if not immediately secured by clipping the 
wings, will fly away also. 
The female moths are then put in places where the eggs are 
to be laid. The native methods are to put two or three in each 
pouche, made of sabay grass, measuring about eighteen inches in 
length by six inches in diameter, closed at both ends, the lower 
part rounded and the top pointed, the straws being about quarter 
of an inch apart. ‘lhe advantages of these pouches are that the 
moths are well secured, and they save much trouble in looking 
after the eggs. When the time of hatching comes the pouches 
are simply attached to the trees where they are to be reared, and 
the ‘‘ worms” do not run any risk of being drowned or eggs spoiled, 
if, as often takes place, a shower of rain should come before the 
eggs are hatched or the “ worms” have all left it. On the other 
side the loss of eggs must be great, as they are often laid just 
between two straws, or washed off by the rain; but the natives do 
not seem to care much for such losses. 
