INSECTA — BUTTERFLY. 859 



their skin. They then appear with their bodies bent into a bow, wnich they 

 now and then are seen to straighten ; they make no use of their legs ; but, 

 if they attempt to change place, do it by the contortions of their body 



THE BUTTERFLY. 



The number of these beautiful animals is very great; and though Lin- 

 rseus has reckoned up above seven hundred and sixty different kinds, the 

 patalogue is still very incomplete. Every collector of butterflies can show 

 undescribed species ; and such as are fond of minute discovery, can here pro- 

 duce animals that have been examined only by himself. In general, how- 

 ever, those of the warmer climates are larger and more beautiful than such 

 as are bred at home. 



The wings of butterflies, as was observed, fully distinguish them from 

 flies of every other kind. They are four in number; and though two of 

 them be cut off, the animal can fly with the two others remaining. They 

 are, in their own substance, transparent ; but owe their opacity to the beau- 

 tiful dust with which they are covered; if we regard the wing of a butterfly 

 with a good microscope, we shall perceive it studded over with a variety of 

 little grains of different dimensions and forms, generally supported upon a 

 footstalk, regularly laid upon the whole surface. The wing itself is com- 

 posed of several membranes, which render the construction very strong, 

 though light ; and though it be covered over with thousands of these scales 

 or studs, yet its weight is very little increased by the number. The animal 

 is with ease enabled to support itself a long while in the air, although its 

 flight be not very graceful. When it designs to fly to a considerable dis- 

 tance, it ascends and descends- alternately ; going sometimes to the right, 

 sometimes to the left, without any apparent reason. Upon closer examina- 

 tion, however, it will be found that it flies thus irregularly in pursuit of its 

 mate; and as dogs bait and quarter the ground in pursuit of their game, so 

 these insects traverse the air, in quest of their mates, whom they can dis- 

 cover at more than a mile distance. 



This tribe of insects has been divided into diurnal and nocturnal flies ; or, 

 more properly speaking, into butterflies and moths ; the one flying only by 

 day, the other most usually on the wing in the night. They may be easily 

 distinguished from each other, by their antennae or feelers ; those of the 

 butterfly being clubbed, or knobbed at the end ; those of the moth, tapering 

 finer and finer to a point. To express it technically, the antennas of butter* 

 flies are clavated ; those of moths are filiform. 



