REPORT ON FORESTS. 215 



first effort ; but failure is not infrequent, and as many as four 

 such holes may be drilled into a small tree from different sides 

 before the grub is finally landed. A tree so treated is spoiled 

 for all purposes save the wood-pile. It may recover, yet it will 

 never completely outgrow the injury done — not by the larva, 

 but by the bird. 



The " goat moth," by the by, deserves more than a mere pass- 

 ing notice, because of the real injury done, not so much to the 

 tree, as such, as to the timber that it should make. The 

 insect derives its popular name from its peculiarly pungent 

 and unpleasant odor, which is most intense in the pupal stage, 

 and is, perhaps, protective. The moths are large, expanding 

 from two to four inches, the wings more parchment-like in 

 appearance than usual in this order, and the body in form some- 

 what like the hawk moths. They do not feed, fly chiefly at dusk 

 or in the night, and are rarely seen even when the larvae 

 are abundant. Eggs are laid in some wound, preferably the very 

 spot where a moth has already emerged, and the young cater- 

 pillars start from that point. A tree once infested, therefore, 

 is likely to remain so, and at the point of entrance quite a 

 decided swelling usually forms, in which is a more or less obvi- 

 ous scarred opening. The caterpillars are white or with a pink- 

 ish tinge, just a little flattened, with rather prominent black 

 warts or tubercles, each of which bear stiff, bristly hairs. The 

 head is large, brown, and with proniinent jaws. When full- 

 grown they are fully two inches in length, and early in the third 

 year the pupa is formed in the gallery, near the surface, and 

 preferably at just about the point where the entrance was 

 effected. The borer is no great feeder, considering its size and 

 length of life ; its burrow rarely exceeding six or eight inches 

 in length, of equal diameter throughout, so that the larva may 

 move from one part to the other at all times. A young borer 

 entering one of these old burrows may continue it upwardly, or 

 may start a lateral from it, curving upward soon after he gets 

 well away from the old one, and so a series of galleries may start 

 from the one point of entrance, each year adding a little to the 

 sum of injury and detracting as much from the value of the 

 timber. Since they do not really interfere with the nourish- 

 ment of the tree, they are not likely at any time to cause its 



