The moths, Fig. 26, d, belong to the family commonly known as plume moths or feather wings (Pterophoridæ), from having their wings divided into feather-like lobes. When the wings are expanded they measure about seven-tenths of an inch across. They are yellowish brown with a metallic luster, and have several dull whitish streaks and spots. The fore wings are split down the middle about half way to their base, the posterior half having a notch in the outer margin. The body is somewhat darker than the wings. It is not known positively in what stage the winter is passed, but it is supposed to be the perfect, or imago stage. The unnatural grouping and spinning of the leaves together leads to their detection, and they can be easily destroyed by hand picking and then crushing or burning them. * * * * * THE BREEDS OF DOGS. The dog exhibitions that have annually taken place for the last eight years at Paris and in the principal cities of France have shown how numerous and varied the breeds of dogs now are. It is estimated that there are at present, in Europe, about a hundred very distinct and very fine breeds (that is to say, such as reproduce their kind with constant characters), without counting a host of sub-breeds or varieties that a number of breeders are trying to fix. Most of the breeds of dogs, especially those of modern creation, are the work of man, and have been obtained by intercrossing older breeds and discarding all the animals that departed from the type sought. But many of these breeds are also the result of accident, or rather of modifications of certain parts of the organism--of a sort of rachitic or teratological degeneration which has become hereditary and has been due to domestication; for it is proved that the dog is the most anciently domesticated animal, and that its submission to man dates back to more than five thousand years. Such is the origin of the breeds of terriers, bulldogs, and all of the small house dogs. Man has often, designedly or undesignedly, aided in the production of breeds of this last category by submitting the dog to a regimen contrary to nature, or setting to work to reproduce an animal born monstrous, either for curiosity or for interest. As well known, the accidental characters and the spontaneous modifications which work no injury to the essential functions of life became easily hereditary, and the same is the case with certain artificial modifications pursued for a long series of generations. It was the opinion of Buffon that the breeds of dogs, which were already numerous in his time, were all derived from a single type, which, according to him, was the shepherd's dog. Other scientists have insisted that the dog descended from the wolf, and others from the jackal. At the present time, it is rightly admitted that several species of wild dogs have concurred in the formation of the different breeds of dogs as we now have them.