132 THE RING OF NATURE 



to end and kept together by wattling, but so 

 loosely woven at one end that when the moth 

 pushes from inside, the staves open and it gets out 

 without the trouble of gnawing. The moth maybe 

 happens to be a female. Place it in a box on the 

 window-sill and if there are any males within a 

 mile, you will have them all calling upon her. 

 M. Fabre, writing of a Bombyx (fox-moth family), 

 so rare in his district that in three years he was 

 unable to get a cocoon, though he had all the 

 school children in his pay to search for them, thus 

 describes the assembling of the males to the female 

 he had at last obtained : 



' The mother Bombyx grew ripe. By a chemistry 

 of which our science has not the least idea, she 

 secreted an irresistible essence which would bring 

 her visitors from the corners of the sky. On the 

 third day the bride was ready. I was in the 

 garden, by this time despairing of success, when, 

 about three in the afternoon, the sun shining 

 warmly and brilliantly, I saw a crowd of moths 

 whirling about the open window. They were 

 the lovers come to visit the fair one. Some were 

 coming out from the window, others going in, 

 others resting on the wall after their long 

 journey. Some had come very far, across mulberry 

 orchards and woods of cypress. They came from 

 every direction, but more and more infrequently. 

 I did not see the beginning of the assembly, and 

 now the concourse was almost complete. . . . 

 In the room there was a cloud of males which I 

 estimated at sixty.' 



