he nightingale is universally admitted to be the most enchanting of
warblers; and many might be tempted to encage the mellifluous songster,
but for the supposed difficulty of procuring proper food for it. In the
village of Cossey, near Norwich, an individual has had a nightingale in
cage since last April; it is very healthy and lively, and has been wont
to charm its owner with its sweet and powerful strains. The bird appears
about two years old: it has gone through this year's moulting. It is
kept in a darksome cage, with three sides wood, and the fourth wired.
The bottom of the cage is covered with moss. Its constant food is a
paste, which is composed of fresh beef or mutton, scraped fine with a
knife, and in equal portions mixed with the yolk of an egg boiled hard.
The owner, however, about once a-day, gives it also a _mealworm_;
he does not think this last dainty to be necessary, but only calculated
to keep the nightingale in better spirits. The paste should be changed
before it becomes sour and tainted.

PHILOMELOS.

* * * * *

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 attach