38 ~ © WINTER NOTES 
out of its old skin, the worm makes a careful review of the 
operation, with its head feeling the aperture of every spir- 
acle, as well as the tail, probably for the purpose of re- 
moving any broken fragment of skin which might have 
remained in these delicate organs. Not only is the outer 
skin cast off, but also the lining of the air tubes and intes- 
tines, together witlrall the ‘chewing organs and other appen- 
dages of the head. After the moulting, the size of the 
larva is considerably increased, the head is large compared 
with the body, but eight or ten days later it will look small, 
as the body will have increased very much in size. This 
is a certain indication that the worm is about to moult. 
Every ten days the same operation is repeated ; from the 
_ fourth moulting to the time of beginning the cocoon, the 
period is about sixteen days. 
The worms seem entirely unable to discern objects with 
their simple eyes, but they can distinguish light from 
darkness, as a very simple experiment will show. If a 
worm be put in a box with two holes in it, one of them 
turned to the light, the other to the dark, the caterpillar 
will very soon come out through the hole turned to the 
light.— To be continued. 
WINTER NOTES OF AN ORNITHOLOGIST. 
BY J. A. ALLEN. 
The winter birds of the northern and eastern States are 
few in number. In Massachusetts, away from the sea 
shore, there are ordinarily but fifty-five to sixty species, 
‘which consist mainly of permanent residents and win- 
ter visitors from more northern districts, . The resident 
