312 HOMING WITH THE BIllDS 



At the proper time, the moth will appear, take 

 wing, mate, find a hickory tree, and deposit her 

 eggs on the undersides of the leaves, which are 

 best suited for food for the tiny caterpillars when 

 they emerge. Then the moth will nestle down in 

 the grasses and pass out, never having taken food 

 herself. The tiny caterpillars leave their shells 

 knowing upon what leaves to feed, how to conduct 

 themselves during a series of moults and how to 

 take their part in all the processes of their lives, 

 even more unerringly than the birds, for I have 

 frequently seen birds make mistakes. I never saw 

 a moth or caterpillar make a mistake, unless it had 

 been subject to some outside interference. Whether 

 the caterpillar of to-day enters a different pupa case 

 or spins a better cocoon than those of the first cen- 

 tury, I do not know; but I think they do, since 

 creatures that have performed the same operations 

 since their evolution to the cocoon stage should 

 attain great facility. By several forms of conclu- 

 sive evidence, I hope to prove that the birds are 

 progressing. 



The aged Simeon Pease Cheney, for fifty years 

 a professional musician, after a lifetime of bird 

 friendship and study, at the age of sixty-seven, 

 began recording bird songs for a book. Unfor- 

 tunately, he was unable to complete it. Shortly 

 before his crossing, he used the expression: "The 

 birds improve." He had reference to the develop- 

 ment of their voices from the first guttural squeaks, 



