* * * * *


NOTES

_Abridged from the Magazine of Natural History._


_Silkworm_.--(_By a Correspondent.)_--It has occurred to me, and I have
not seen it remarked elsewhere, as a striking and interesting
peculiarity of this insect, that it does not wander about as all other
caterpillars do, but that it is nearly stationary in the open box or
tray where it is placed and fed: after consuming the immediate supply of
mulberry leaves, it waits patiently for more being provided. I apprehend
this cannot be said of any other insect whatever. This docile quality of
the worm harmonizes beautifully with its vast importance to mankind, in
furnishing a material which affords our most elegant and beautiful, if
not most useful, of garments. The same remark applies to the insect in
the fly or moth state, the female being quite incapable of flight, and
the male, although of a much lighter make, and more active, can fly but
very imperfectly; the latter circumstance ensures to us the eggs for the
following season, and thus completes the adaptation of the insect, in
its different stages, to the useful purpose it is destined to fulfil for
our advantage.

_The Possibility of introducing and naturalizing that beautiful Insect
the Fire Fly_.--It abounds not only in Canada, where the winters are
so severe, but in the villages of the Vaudois in Piedmont. These are
a poor people much attached to the English: and, at 10_s_. a dozen,