"I wish I knew what had become of the boy," said the doctor, as they slowly picked their way upward; "he seemed such a quaint, old-fashioned little chap."
[to be continued.]
Brooklyn, New York.
About the 1st of August I found some big worms crawling on an ailantus-tree in our yard. They were about two and a half inches long, of a pale green color, with white humps all over them, and beautiful blue spots on their heads. Mamma caught them for me, and we put them on a board with some ailantus leaves, and turned a large wire sieve over them. Every morning I gave them fresh leaves to eat, and in two or three days they began to spin themselves into cocoons. Some rolled themselves up in the leaves, while others clung to the side of the sieve, covering themselves at first with a thin white film, through which we could see the worm for half a day working himself back and forth. Then the film grew so thick we could not see the worm any more. When they had all formed cocoons mamma stood them away in a quiet place where nothing could injure them, and I went every morning to see if anything had come out of the cocoons. About three weeks passed, when one morning I found three magnificent moths clinging to the sieve. Mamma put ether on their heads, and they never moved again. She fastened them in a box for me, and arranged the wings, and they are just as beautiful as they can be. They spread about four inches. The color is reddish-brown, and across the middle of the wings there is a whitish line shading off into a clay-colored border. In the centre of each wing there is a long reddish-white spot, and on the tip of each fore-wing is a dark bluish eye. On the head are delicate feathered antennæ. Mamma found a picture of the moth in a book. We are sure it belongs to the genus Attacus, and we think it is the kind called Attacus promethia.