872 ZOOLOGY. 
of ants during an unusually warm and ae day early in Sep- 
tember. See also this journal, p. 392.— 
Hasirs or tHE Cur Worm.—TI venture to send you an item 
in regard to the common cut worm (Agrotis or dart-moth) which 
is new tome. A friend recently related to me the results of some 
extended observations which were corroborative of some another 
friend made not long before. He found that the cut worms would 
come out of the ground at about nine o’clock in the evening; the 
did not vary many minutes from that time in all the observations 
he made. He used to watch them for hours, by the light of a 
lantern. 
Sometimes he would put atin or wooden box around the plant, 
just to see what they would do, and then occurred what seemed to 
me the most singular part of their performance. The worm would 
crawl towards the plant till it came to the box, then it would fol- 
low along the side of the box to find an opening, and if none were 
found, it would ascend the side of the box — whether of tin or 
wood—to the very top; reach around in every direction, and, if 
nothing could be felt, would turn and go back, down the outside 
of the box (never on the inside), and go into the ground. Some- 
times he would bend the leaf of the cabbage plant so that the worm 
could touch it, when it would instantly take to the plant, follow it 
down till it came to the root, and then commence its work, i.e., 
gnaw the stem off, and feed on the central portion of the same. 
The manner in which the worm feeds upon the grape was observed 
to be thus :—The worm would come out of the ground at its usual 
time, ascend the vine till it came to a new shoot, gnaw that off, 
and fasten itself to the stump of the branch so gnawed, and suck 
the sap of the vine till it was so full it seemed almost ready to 
burst, then descend to the ground and bury itself out of sight.— 
N. Coteman, Grand Rapids,Michigan. 
Composition or Sarmon. — Prof. Sir R. Christison lately com- 
municated to the Royal Society the results of a chemical analysis 
of clean salmon (i.e., those in good condition) and of the same 
species when exhausted or “foul.” A mean of several trials gave, 
for the clean salmon, oil 18:53 per cent., nitrogenous matter 19°70 
per cent., saline matter 0°88 per cent., water 60°89 per cent. ; for 
the foul salmon, oil 1-25 per cent., nitrogenous matter 17°07 pet 
cent., saline matter 0°88 per cent., water 80°80 per cent. 
