PRESERVATION OF SPECIMENS. 591 



is one which is well worthy of imitation. Residents in other 

 countries are too apt to forget the interests of their own, and 

 they soon become familiar with the objects which at first are 

 new and strange to them, and at last become entirely indifferent. 

 Even when they do take the trouble to collect and send home 

 a few objects, they do so in such a manner that they are almost 

 useless, no description being given of them, and no clue afforded 

 which can help the home-staying student. 



Here, however, proper pains have been taken, and the value 

 of the objects is in consequence multiplied a hundred-fold. A 

 number of nests were sent as they were collected from the 

 branches, and, in order to show that the architect is not confined 

 to one species of tree, they have been carefully selected from 

 several trees, such as the oak, acacia, and alder. My specimens 

 are taken from the last-mentioned tree. Knowing that the pupae 

 would become moths in the course of the voyage, Mr. Tom- 

 kinson placed a number of them in the box, so that a perfect 

 series of the insect has .been obtained, namely, the male and 

 female, pupa and larva, somf in the dried state and others in 

 spirits, in order that the internal anatomy might be examined. 



Before the male caterpillar changes into a chrysalis it reverses 

 its position, so that the head is close to the orifice which was 

 previously occupied by the tail. When it has completed 

 its change, and is about to issue into the world, it forces itself 

 out of the nest as far as the base of the abdomen. The female 

 never leaves her home, and never changes her attitude, and 

 scarcely changes her form. After she has emerged from the 

 pupal states, she seems to return to her former condition, and 

 would be taken by any ordinary observer for a caterpillar of 

 more than ordinary fatness. She has no wings, and no legs to 

 speak of, these members being needless in a creature that never 

 changes her position. It is rather curious that the males should 

 ever be able to find their spouses, but they are probably led by 

 an instinct which we cannot comprehend, as is the case with 

 several of the larger British moths. 



The male is a rather small though stoutly made insect, and 

 is not at all attractive in colour, being simple brown, with a few 

 black markings on the wings. The antennie, however, are very 

 beautiful, being doubly feathered, like those of the Housebuilder 

 Moth, the feathering being widest at the base, and narrowing 



