A PARADOXICAL PENCHANT. 323 



homely-looking creature for a moth is this Lady Vapourer, 

 with her great heavy brown body, making her seem all body 

 and nothing else ; for not only wings, but even head, horns, 

 legs each of which are of the smallest possible dimensions 

 seem sacrificed to the formation of that bulky corporation a 

 perfect sackfuJl of eggs, which are actually discernible through 

 the skin.* How this most matronly insect (being from her 

 earliest moth-hood thus a stay-at-home) is accustomed to 

 deposit these her eggs upon the silk cocoon, which, after having 

 shrouded herself, becomes a warm winter cradle for her embryo 



tf 



offspring ; how r the latter, in due season, grow up into hand- 

 some tufted caterpillars ; these, and perhaps a few other 

 particulars, which concern the domestic economy of the " Va- 

 pourer," have they not been already written in our brief 

 Chronicles of the Moths of England ? These we must, for 

 the present, bring to a close by a few random and general 

 observations. 



In a creature shunning usually the light of day, it would 

 seem a strange infatuation to be lured by the glare of a taper 

 to its own destruction ; and wherein consists, to a misguided 

 moth, the charm of light, remains, we believe, somewhat of 

 a mystery, though the doubt is not destitute of at least 

 conjectural elucidation. It has been discovered that many 

 moths carry about with them lights of their own, being fur- 

 nished, like grimalkin and her night-prowling cousins of the 



* See vignette for figures of the " Vapourer," male and female. 

 VOL. II. U 



