_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,
would, no doubt, deliver in Paris, in boxes properly contrived, any
number of these creatures, in every stage of their existence, and even
in the egg, should that be desired: and if twenty dozen were turned out
in different parts of England, there cannot remain a doubt but that,
in a few years, they would be common through the country; and, in our
summer evenings, be exquisitely beautiful.
Vigne, in his _Six Months in America_, says:--"At Baltimore I first
saw the fire-fly. They begin to appear about sunset, after which they
are sparkling in all directions. In some places ladies wear them in
their hair, and the effect is said to be very brilliant. Mischievous
boys will sometimes catch a bull-frog, and fasten them all over him.
They show to great advantage; while the poor frog, who cannot understand
the 'new lights' that are breaking upon him, affords amusement to his
tormentors by hopping about in a state of desperation."
_The Vampire Bat_.--Bishop Heber's opinion of the innocence of this
creature by no means agrees with what one has read of his bloodthirsty
habits; and particularly the instances given by Captain Stedman, in his
_Travels of Surinam_, who, more than once, individually, experienced
the inconvenience of the Sangrado system of blood-letting, or, more
properly, blood-taking, pursued by this practitioner.
"Non missura cutern, nisi plena cruoris hirudo."