210 
THE SUBSTITUTE. 
is also no mention of the manner 
in wliicli members are to be pro- 
posed and elected, which matters 
we think should be incorporated.] 
The owre true History of a 
Brood of Centra Vinula . — May 
30, 1855, saw some larg;e moth 
sailing on the wings of the wind, 
and its own also looming in the 
distance and coming towards us: 
net presented, struck, and caught 
it; and by all that’s lovely a 
Vinula ; put it in a box ; and 
after a good catch at sugar re- 
traced our steps, and arrived at 
home all anxiety about the lovely 
captive: looked in the box and 
found puss at rest, and surrounded 
by convex nut-coloured shining 
buttons, that we saw were ova : 
counted them, and found they 
numbered fifty-eight: next morn- 
ing found the number had in- 
creased to 147. She lived three 
days, then battered herself to 
pieces, and seemed to expire in a 
kind of ecstacy. Counted the ova 
once more, and found that I was 
the possessor of 187. June 15, 1 
discovered that the incubation was 
complete, and a troop of little 
brown animated things, like so 
many lilliputian kittens, wig-wag- 
ging* their tails, and evidently in 
search of that which was not to be 
found. However, I soon satisfied 
them by putting some “ green 
willow” before them, and had the 
pleasing satisfaction of seeing they 
were an approving company of 
little fellows, and like all good 
boys ate what was set before them. 
Changed the food daily (for the 
first fortnight), and on the sixth 
day I found they refused to eat, 
and were in a kind of trance, as 
they were motionless from three 
to five days, when I observed 
some of them in the throes of la- 
bour: felt interested, and noticed 
one of them burst the skin near 
the head, and by degrees out came 
a little rascal with a smarter suit, 
of brighter colour, and like the 
fashionables of the day, a stripe 
down the sides of a yellowish- 
green, but not continuous, rather 
broken in the middle: they all 
moulted, but with a variation of 
time, as some of them were stout- 
ish fellows when their brethren 
were emerging from the first skin. 
I found they were from three to 
four days and a half in changing, 
according to the more vigorous 
vitality some of them were en- 
dowed with. On the eighth day 
from the last change I noticed the 
same dormancy evidently oppress- 
ing them, but prior to which I 
observed them fabricating a car- 
pet of white silk to rest upon, with 
their large elephant - like legs 
affixed thereto, and the other six 
elevated in a conceited attitude, 
like so many little dogs begging. 
Afier the second moult (I found 
that I was minus some thirty- 
seven) the saddle on the back was 
brown speckled with white and 
a narrow edge of white, and the 
stripe of brighter green: some of 
them decidedly unsocial in dispo- 
sition, as some found out to their 
cost. I noticed some of them that 
wished to dine out meet with very 
scurvy treatment, as they were 
bitten on the hump by the lord of 
the manor, and from the puncture 
there issued a greenish fluid, and 
a gradual wasting of the system 
ensued, so that I found the poor 
fellows at the botttnn of the box 
in a dying state, victims to the 
offended dignity of fratricidal 
brethren, and melancholy exam- 
