58 



RECREATION. 



jfttaeus Cecropia. 



pretty much everywhere. When ready to 

 spin it has a most beautiful emerald color. 

 Early in September it fastens to a limb, 

 spins a cocoon averaging 2^ to 3 inches 

 long, and goes into winter quarters. In 

 almost any suburb of Chicago quantities 

 of cocoon may be found, and preserved, 

 if desired. Indoors they will hatch in 

 the latter part of May. They should be 



teoon 



At tar us Cecropia. 



Caterpillar 



kept in a bird cage, or some similar con- 

 finement, at the time of hatching. 



While there are myriads of these silk 

 worms in the country, no use can be made 

 of the fabric they spin. The material of 

 the outside layers of the cocoon is the 

 same as the spun silk ; and any attempt to 

 soften this outer covering destroys the 

 silk within. 



SHALL THE FARMERS OR THE MILLIN- 

 ERS SURVIVE? 



In an editorial on the destruction of birds 

 for millinery purposes the Tacoma Ledger 

 says: 



If men were caught sowing Canada 

 thistles on the lands of the American 

 farmers, or engaged in the dissemination 

 of chinch bugs or army worms, or should 

 set up a hatchery for the cultivation and 

 spread of potato bugs, there would be an 

 uproar in the land from one end to the 

 other. If a general raid were to be in- 

 stituted to steal the apples or the melons 

 of the agriculturists wherever found, a 

 similar outcry would be raised. If it 

 should be proposed to flood the fields of 

 the country, even with nature-given 

 water, at harvest time, there would arise 

 the same sort of hubbub. Yet in neither 



instance would we more directly injure 

 the farmer than by the destruction of the 

 birds. 



The birds most useful to the milliners, 

 because best endowed with gaudy colors 

 and graceful forms, are, almost without 

 exception, the very birds that are most 

 useful to the farmer as protectors against 

 the enemies of his crop; and the man 

 who kills these helpers of the farmer, 

 thereby destroying his prospects for a 

 full crop, ought to be held as guilty of 

 crime as is the man who deliberately 

 enters the orchard or the field to steal 

 the fruit. The damage to the farmer is 

 the same in the one case as in the other, 

 however clear of intentional wrong the 

 dealer or his customer may seem to be. 



If, again, we look at the material in- 

 terests of the country affected by the traf- 

 fic, its disastrous effect assumes still more 

 alarming proportions. The farmers of 

 this country have an interest in yearly 

 crops averaging several billions of dol- 

 lars, while the total permanent invest- 

 ments in the millinery business fail to 

 mount above $25,000,000. It has been 

 estimated that the annual losses to the 

 farmers of the United States from depre- 

 dations by the insect life exceeds $200,- 

 000,000. Hence a difference of one per 

 cent, on the wrong side of the farmers' 

 account would mean as much to the 

 country as the complete wiping out of 

 every millinery establishment from Van- 

 couver to Key West. 



Turn this matter as you will, whether 

 as an instrument of cruelty to the least 

 hateful of all God's creatures, or as an 

 instrument of evil and subtraction from 

 the pocketbooks of the people, it is evi- 

 dent that something should be done for 

 the suppression of this foolish fashion. 



Something might be done by legal 

 enactment looking to the punishment of 

 those engaged in the bird traffic as crim- 

 inals, perhaps, but much more can be 

 done by the united action of the women 

 of the country in withdrawing their sup- 

 port from it. Let every woman refuse 

 to buy a hat or bonnet trimmed with 

 either birds or featherb and not another 

 contract for the slaughter of our useful 

 birds will be made. 



THE MARTHA'S VINEYARD PRAI- 

 RIE CHICKEN. 



In speaking of this bird, Prof. N. S. 

 Shaler says: In Dukes county, Mass., there 

 is the vanishing remnant of an interesting 

 bird, known from the island to which it 

 is limited as the Martha's Vineyard prairie 

 chicken. It is closely related to its better 

 known Western kinsman, yet is a distinct 

 variety. Although the form has apparently 



