32 IRambles witb mature Stufcents 



come amiss to these little plagues. They can adapt 

 themselves to digest every kind of material, and very 

 diligently do they set to work to reduce feathers, 

 cloth, furs, and stuffed animals and birds to a heap of 

 dusty fragments. One is familiar with the ordinary 

 moth cases containing the grubs, and sometimes the 

 small white larvae make tunnels in the substance they 

 are devouring, but in the room I speak of a certain 

 red plush table-cover contained a number of neat 



MOTH LARWE IN PLUSH CLOTH. 



little oval cells, and in each reposed a fat white 

 grub, no doubt the maker of the cell. Since the cloth 

 is ruined, I have allowed these innocent babies to 

 remain in their cradles, and I shall watch them turn 

 into chrysalides, and eventually into moths. 



The smallest specimens of this destructive tribe 

 that I have yet met with are the cork moths ; they 

 lay their eggs in the corks of old sweet wine, with the 

 result that the grubs bore holes into the said corks, 

 and thus let in the outer air and turn the wine into 

 vinegar, and in this way thousands of bottles of 



