Il6 LIVING CREATURES. 



Imagine how active the head of that creature must be 

 during these few days. 



The silken house thus made looks like a pea-nut. 

 When it is finished, the worm once more puts off its 

 old skin, which it packs into a wad, and crowds away 

 in the end of the cocoon. Now it changes into a 

 pupa, and so remains for two or three weeks. 



When the cocoons are wanted for silk, as most of 

 them are, and not for rearing moths for eggs, the pupa 

 within is killed or choked by steam, or by setting the 

 cocoons on a tray in an oven heated to a certain de- 

 gree of temperature. After the operation of choking, 

 the cocoons are dried in the air and are ready for reel- 

 ing. It takes from three hundred to four hundred 

 fresh cocoons, or three times as many choked cocoons, 

 to weigh a pound. Of the former, a pound is worth 

 about thirty-five cents, and of the latter, a pound is 

 worth about one dollar. 



The reeling of silk from the cocoons is a nice and 

 delicate operation.. W T hen reeled, the product is known 

 as raw silk, and is ready to be twisted into thread and 

 to be woven into cloth. 



27. FACTS ABOUT INSECTS. 



THE dragon-fly seen about ponds, darting here and 

 there on four beautifully colored, gauze-like, net-veined 

 wings, is by the French called demoiselle (dem wa- 

 zel') which means a young lady. Devil's darning- 



