420 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 
or gnaw a slight notch in its side, for a meal, and as soon as 
they have fed thus much it can be seen that their bodies are 
more plump, and fine whitish lines begin to appear upon them. 
As they increase in size, and especially each time they change 
their skins, their color becomes more diversified. They change 
their skins five or perhaps six times at intervals of from three to 
nine days, the worm gaining from an eightli to a quarter of an 
inch in length each time it throws off - its old skin. 
When young they go out to feed much less frequently 
than when they are larger. They move about entirely at hazard 
in search of food, having no power of smell or other sense to 
guide them, as I infer from having placed apple and cherry 
leaves in the direction in which famishing worms were travel¬ 
ing, and seeing them pass quite near and almost touching such 
leaves without discovering them. Nor when a store of food has 
been discovered by some of the worms of a starved nest, have 
they any mode of communicating the information to the others. 
The rest of the nest probably discover the fact that some of their 
comrades have obtained a full meal, and thus know that food is 
somewhere within their reach, but they are obliged to wander 
about at hap-hazard until they find it. And I have noticed one 
hungry worm and another after examining the end of every twig 
upon a limb unsuccessfully for food, on returning down the limb 
meet several others going out upon the same errand; yet they 
pass their comrades without those who are coming in having 
any mode of informing those who are going out that their jour¬ 
ney will be wholly fruitless. 
As a general rule each nest has its stated hours for feeding and 
for repose, all the worms going out and returning in a regular 
procession, one after another. They repair to a particular limb 
of the tree, frequently a limb which is distant from the nest, 
and there feed together, occupying every leaf and three or four 
worms often eating upon one leaf. In pleasant weather they 
have usually three meals in twenty-four hours, one in the morn¬ 
ing, one in the afternoon, and another in the night. But there 
is much irregularity in all these points of their history. A part 
of the worms are often at rest in their nest while the others 
are out feeding. And when they are about to cast their skins 
