BROWN-TAIL MOTH 



958 



BROWN UNIVERSITY 



town was besieged and occupied by Mexican 

 raiders. It was made a Federal blockade port 

 in 1863. The last engagement of the War 

 of Secession took place at Palmetto Ranch, 

 near the battlefield of Palo Alto, May 13, 1865. 



The place was settled by Americans in 1848, 

 and incorporated in 1853. The commission 

 form of government was adopted in 1916. The 

 water works, electric light plant and street rail- 

 way are owned by the city. L.B. 



BROWN-TAIL MOTH, originally a Euro- 

 pean moth, whose caterpillars are very de- 

 structive to orchard, forest and shade trees. It 

 was accidentally brought into Massachusetts 

 about 1890, where it has done much damage, 

 and has gradually spread through New Eng- 

 land. The wings of this moth are pure white, 



of leaves, and they also eat into apples and 

 pears. In October they spin their winter webs 

 grayish silk nests and so, attached to twigs, 

 they stay until April. The greatest damage 

 is done in the spring by the hungry cater- 

 pillars emerging from the nests. The destruc- 

 tion of these nests in the winter by removal 

 and burning is the best means of exterminating 

 the moths. Spraying with kerosene emulsion 

 or a strong solution of arsenate of lead or even 

 strong soapsuds destroys the caterpillar (see 

 INSECTICIDES). See GYPSY MOTH. 



BROWN THRASHER, often incorrectly 

 called a brown thrush, is a handsome, reddish- 

 brown bird longer than the robin. It has a 

 long tail, which it thrashes about to show its 

 emotions, hence the name. Its breast is 



BROWN-TAIL MOTH 



(a) Egg mass and moth laying egg (e) Full-grown caterpillar 



(b) Winter nest (/) Female moth 

 (e) Male pupa (g) Male moth 

 (d) Female pupa 



the name brown-tail being given it on account 

 of a bunch of brown hair at the tip of the 

 abdomen of the female. With wings out- 

 spread the female moth is one and one-half 

 inches across, the male being slightly smaller. 

 On mornings during the flying season hundreds 

 of these moths can be seen collected on poles 

 or posts near electric lights, whence they scatter 

 to trees. 



The first three weeks in July the female 

 deposits her eggs about 250 of them under 

 the tip of a leaf. About fifteen or twenty days 

 later they develop into the destructive cater- 

 pillar, about two-thirds of an inch long, with 

 a wavy line of light spots on each side of its 

 back and two red spots at the end. Its barbed 

 hairs contain a poison which causes a burning 

 itch when it touches the skin. 



The young caterpillars feed on the outer coat 



speckled with white; its bill is long and curved 

 at the tip; its eyes are yellow. In all parts 

 of the Eastern United States and Lower Canada 

 it sings in gardens and orchards and from road- 

 side fences, in notes not much inferior to those 

 of the mocking bird. It is a good mimic. In 

 the early morning or evening time it perches 

 in the top of a tree and sings sometimes for 

 an hour or more. It nests in shrubbery and 

 brush piles and lays four or five eggs, bluish- 

 white and dotted with reddish-brown. Not 

 only is the brown thrasher a joy to the ear 

 and eye, but it is a help to the gardener, 

 for in return for the few berries it takes it 

 feeds on many insects which would be harm- 

 ful to plants. 



BROWN UNIVERSITY, one of the com- 

 paratively few institutions of higher learning 

 in the United States which date back to 



