Just out of the Cocoon 



Photo by M. V. Slingerland. 



My Study of Moths from Living Specimens* 



Alice E. Proud 

 State Normal School at Trenton, N. J, . 



Before beginning to collect the thirty-five specimens of insects 

 required for the nature department of this school, I did not know- 

 that there were such beautiful and interesting creatures as the big 

 bird-like night moths in existence. As for day moths, I had no 

 idea that there were such things. My only experience with 

 moths had been with the tiny white and gray ones that flutter 

 at the screens on summer evenings. 



My first experience along this line came during my first year of 

 teaching. Late in the fall, a small boy brought me what he called 

 a "queer nest". It was a big baggy gray cocoon, woven to a 

 branch of blackberry. I had no idea what was in it, but when I 

 shook it something inside rattled and felt quite heavy. I kept it 

 at school nearly all winter, but in the early spring I took it home 

 and hung it to a nail on the wall. One week-end, on coming home 

 I found that a big beautiful moth had emerged. It so happened 



*This was a Commencement Essay prepared under the direction of Miss 

 Elizabeth P. Sheppard, teacher of Nature-Study in the Trenton Normal 

 School and had several charming illustrations in water color which could not 

 be reproduced by engraving. — Editor. 



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