412 Dr. Wallace on the Oak-fveding 
be otherwise injurious, they will wander away; they always, as 
before noticed, stray towards the light and fresh air, and this cir- 
cumstance I have also noted in the larvee of the Bombyx Cynthia, 
when I have kept them in large numbers in a room. In order not to 
lose any worm, there should be no carpet or mat on the floor of 
the room wherein the worms are kept, and a table should be used 
without a cover, whereon to place the bottles or trays ; paper of a 
smooth character, as newspaper, may be placed under the trays 
and water bottles; in fact everything should be smooth and pre- 
sent no asperity for the feet to cling to too firmly; this is espe- 
cially desirable where they stray much, since if they get on 
to a cloth they cannot be removed without serious injury.* 
They must also be watched closely when very young, to re- 
place those that have strayed. In order to remove those that 
have fallen, a stiff badger’s-hair brush may be used, or a piece of 
stiff paper may be slid under the larva dexterously, to which he 
will often cling, and may so be raised; this is rendered easier by 
smoothness of surface. If he slide away he may be slipped on 
to the paper by the feathered end of a pen. Being dexterous in 
the use of a pair of forceps, I was accustomed to remove my larvee 
by holding them between the points of the forceps by a gentle 
pressure; but this is only attained by considerable practice—too 
much pressure would kill, too little would fail to convey the worm. 
It will be found desirable to sprinkle the leaves and larvae with 
water in all stages twice or thrice daily or oftener in very hot 
weather. If any worms should get into the water and appear 
drowned, they may be recovered by draining the water away by 
means of blotting-paper, or powdering them over to absorb the 
water, and exposing them to a free current of air. A good mode 
of watering them is to dip into water a brush with long hairs, and 
then passing the hand over it in a direction away from the worms, 
the bristles rebounding fling the water in the desired direction. 
Every day the “ frass” or ordure of the worm should be removed, 
when very small, by a puff of the breath. 
The Quercus pedunculata, or common British oak, is the first to 
break into leaf—some ten or fourteen days before the other 
species. ‘The leaves of this oak are placed on short stalks, and 
* Another good plan is to provide a round table and round trays, for the 
worms in their wanderings keep going on and on without arriving at any 
corner whence they would be likely to drop down on to the ground, 
