SWALLOW-TAIL. 319 



Commencing its nocturnal rambles before the usual con- 

 clusion of our evening walks, the delicate sulphur-coloured 

 pinions of this pretty insect often flit past us in the June and 

 July twilights ; when, in accordance with a comparison already 

 suggested, we might fancy it an evening primrose on the wing. 

 We have noted also its earlier and certainly much closer resem- 

 blance to a vegetable form while yet in the shape of a " walk- 

 ing-branch" caterpillar of the elder, whereon, in the month of 

 May, it is often to be found, either as a brown stick, or as 

 a brown chrysalis, enclosed elegantly and curiously in a cradle 

 of leaves, wherein it hangs suspended like the nests of certain 

 foreign 



The wing of the moth, as of the butterfly, generally owes 

 its beauty to the rich mosaic of minute scales or feathers by 

 which it is overlaid, entirely, as it would seem, by way of orna- 

 ment ; for the creature can use its pinions when reduced to 

 transparent membranes, as well as other insects, or a few of 

 its own tribe in which they are naturally clear. Its progress 

 through the air is no more impeded by the rough handling 

 of wantonness or weather, than the flight of true genius by 

 the rough rubs of fortune, however they may strip its soaring 

 energies of the variegated trappings of worldly splendour. 



There exists, however, a singular and beautiful family of 

 moths, called the " Plumed," to which the above remark is 

 by no means applicable the wing feathers of this tribe being 



* Vignette to " Moths as Operatives." 



