THE STORY OF THE CABBAGE BUTTERFLY. 



Professor W. Lochhead. 



flittini, 



gfarden, 



flowers. 



HE White Cabbag-e Butterflies can be 

 seen almost any fine day in summer 

 about the cabbages in the 

 and among- the wayside 

 Although harmless, they 

 are not liked by farmers and garden- 

 ers, because they are the parents of 

 the common green " worms" which 

 do much harm to cabbages by 

 eating holes in their leaves. 

 It seems strange that a green, crawling cabbage worm should grow 

 into a dainty, white-winged butterfly ; and it is the object of this story to 

 tell, in a simple way, the strange life of this insect. It must be remem- 

 bered, however, that the life stories of all insects are not alike. Some 

 insects spend their whole life above ground; some partly below 



ground and partly aoove ; some 

 partly in the water and partly 

 while others suck up their food 

 as a liquid ; some spend part of 

 their life as a crawling caterpillar, 

 while others have no such stage. 

 So varied are the habits of insects 

 that a noted writer once said : — 

 " Insects walk, run, and jump 

 with the quadrupeds, fly with 



ground ; 

 almost altogether in water ; some 

 in the air ; some eat their food 



the birds, 

 pents, and 



Fig-. 4- — The bov and the insect. 



glide with the ser- 

 swim with the fish." 

 It would be inter- 

 esting work to find examples of many of the insects to 

 which this writer referred, and to study their habits ; but 

 this story must deal with the White Cabbage Butterfly. 



The ancient Egyptians had a strange custom of em- 

 balming their dead, and wrapping them in linen bandages. 

 These mummies, as they are called, were placed in curious- 

 ly wrought cases, and stored carefully away in secret tombs 

 or pits, in the belief that after a time life would return to 

 them. 



Now we have creatures which nature changes into 

 Living 7nummies for five or six months in the year ; and 

 living mummies ought to be more interesting than dead 

 Fig. 43— Egyptian ones. These may be seen at any time during the winter if 

 a little search be made for them under fence-rails, under 

 the eaves of outbuildings, and in other sheltered places. I 

 mean the pupae, or resting forms, of insects. But the particular mum- 

 mies to which I shall refer are the chrysalids (Fig. 44) of the White 



[37] 



Mummy in 

 its case. 



