THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



131 



itself a sarcophagus enriched with gold, and from this is 

 derived the name of chrysalis which is given to it. 



At the decisive and final moment, the dawn of a new life, 

 the mummy, swathed like Diana of Ephesus, awakes from 

 its torpor, becomes full of life, rends its lowly covering, and 

 appears under the form of an insect all glittering with emer- 

 alds and sapphires. It is in this last epoch of. organization 

 that it is called the perfect insect, the imago, as Linnosus 

 named it in his figurative lan^ua^e. 



The birth of the young creature is truly marvellous, for 

 in spite of the unheard-of efforts demanded by the act, it 



66. Emperor Moth. 



issues from its swaddling-clothes in a state of inconceivable 

 freshness. 



The slightest graze rubs off the scales of the butterfly, 

 and yet not one of them is lost when it escapes through the 

 narrow opening of its prison. The Emperor Moth, with its 

 great Argus-eyes upon its robes, emerges from its horny 

 sarcophagus without catching a hair of its velvet wings 

 against it ! 



