242 General Notes. [ March, 
attempts to penetrate it. But when it hopped to an adjoining 
limb, shook itself and performed in a manner which years of 
observation had taught me was not indicative of a hungry bird, I 
began to think its powers had been vastly underestimated. 
the aid of a ladder the cocoon was obtained and found not only . 
to have been punctured, but all the soft and liquid parts extracted. 
As there were others attached to the same tree which upon exam- 
ination proved to be uninjured, I was led to believe the bird had 
found a weak part. 
. After a few days these were examined.and another found to be 
punctured, this time fairly upon the crown and apparently in the 
strongest part. I now saw what had before escaped my notice, 
viz: that by the situation of the first cocoon it was accessible to 
the bird only from below, which accounted for the puncture being 
near its base, close to the twig. A short time afterward, on pass- 
ing another tree, out from among the branches flew the little 
murderer, and, as usual, a punctured cocoon was found, the punc- 
ture yet wet with the juices of the pupa, showing that I had sur- 
prised the bird while at breakfast.) 
Afterward an examination of over twenty cocoons, found in a 
small grove of Negundo aceroides, showed only two uninjured. 
That the birds were not in quest of parasites is at once evident, 
as a parasitized larva of one of these moths reaches only the first 
stages of the pupa state, as the many cocoons I have examined 
contained only the dried skins, in nearly all cases, of larvae appa- 
rently having expired immediately after having constructed their 
cocoons, leaving at this season nothing containing any liquid 
matter whatever, and nothing to afford nourishment for birds. 
A year has gone by, and at this date (January) the little 
destroyers are at work, and I can easily distinguish the dry rat- 
tling sound, the death knell of the beautiful moth, the larva of 
which seems to be as destructive to vegetation as the imago 1s 
innocent. So far as I have been able to observe, the birds do not 
attack these cocoons (a number of which accompany this paper) 
until winter, when other insect food is not so easily obtainable. In 
fact, this seems to be a source of subsistence stored up for this 
season of the year, always fresh and, to all appearances, at all 
times available.—F. AZ, Webster, Waterman, Ills. 
1 This cocoon was opened nearly two months afterwards at the Bloomington meet- 
ing of the Illinois State Nat. Hist. Society, and the pupa found to be still alive. 
