COCOON 



COD 



REGIONS FROM WHICH 

 articles are made. The mid-rib of the leaves 

 tt and by natives for spears, arrows and 

 torches. Many of the mats on which we wipe 

 our feet are made of cocoanut fiber. From the 

 shells are made beautiful cups, ladles and other 

 ornamental utensils. The wood of the lower 

 part of the tree takes a beautiful polish and is 

 wed for boats and houses. About $2,000,000 

 worth of cocoa nuts and their products are im- 

 ported into America every year. M.S. 



COCOON, kokoon'. Most boys and girls 

 have tried the experiment of imprisoning cater- 

 pillars in a box in order to watch the wonderful 

 change from worm to fluttering moth or gor- 

 geous butterfly. In many cases they have seen 

 a caterpillar wind about itself a casing formed 

 of thread which it draws out of its head. This 

 casing is the cocoon. It is a firm shell com- 

 pletely covering the insect, which lies quietly 

 in it during the time it is casting off its old 

 skin and preparing for its new life in the air. 

 Not all species of caterpillar spin cocoons, 

 but there is one which, because of this habit, 

 is the most valuable insect known. This is the 

 inlkwarm (which see), from whose yellow or 

 white cocoon is unwound the material for all 

 our silk. 



Though there are undomesticated silkworms 

 in America, and their cocoons may be found 

 hanging hammocklike close to the under side 

 of small branches or carefully concealed within 

 a folded leaf, the cocoon-spinner which children 

 know best is the fuzzy, furry, brown and black 

 caterpillar which curls up when touched. If 

 one of these interesting little creatures is put 

 in a box in the fall it should be kept in the 

 open air all winter, for its natural process of 

 development is to steep through the cold 

 weather and build its cocoon in the late spring. 

 When its winter's nap is over it will wind 

 itself about with threads of silk, weaving its 

 head back and 'forth until its whole bodv is 



OUR COCOANUTS COME 

 hidden in a coarse coat of mingled silk and 

 hair. Strange to say, the completed cocoon 

 is much smaller than the caterpillar before 

 it starts its work. In a few weeks the end is 

 broken open and the moth crawls out, looking 

 at first like a dilapidated worm but soon un- 

 folding its patterned wings and showing itself 

 a fully-developed insect. See BUTTERFLY; 

 MOTH. 



COD, one of the world's most important 

 food fishes, common to both shores of the 

 North Atlantic Ocean, as far south as France 

 and Virginia. It is a near relative of the hake 

 and haddock, but is more valuable than either 



THE COD 



of these. The cod fisheries along the Grand 

 Banks of Newfoundland and the shores of New 

 England are famous. The prosperity of New- 

 foundland, one of Great Britain's oldest col- 

 onies, depended for many years solely on cod 

 fishing, and the flesh of the fish was salted and 

 used in trade like money. The importance of 

 the cod in the early history of the United 

 States is shown in the fact that it had a place 

 on the seal of Massachusetts Colony, and 

 to-day a gilded codfish hangs in the state 

 house of representatives opposite the Speak- 

 er's desk, between two central columns. The 

 abundance of the fish along the eastern shores 

 of America was noted by the early voyagers 

 and recorded in the stories of their travels. 



Description. The cod has a slightly-flat- 

 tened body, which tapers abruptly to the tail, 

 and is usually greenish or olive on the back and 

 sides, which are dotted with numerous small 



