THE MARSU FRITUX^RT. 



THE MARSH FRITILLART. 505 



light, tbey begin to spin for themselves a large and commodious web, 

 into which they flee for shelter during rainy weather, and in the 

 night; and under the protection of which they change their skins. 



When they have attained their full growth, they seek out some 

 proper place where they can safely take their chrysalid form. In 

 doing this they suspend themselves vertically, with the head down- 

 ward ; and the chrysalis, thus suspended, continues for about twenty 

 days, about the end of which time the insect becomes perfected, 

 breaks out from its shell and flies away. 



THE MARSH FRITILLARY. 



The Marsh Fritillary is a small butterfly, not measuring more than 

 an inch and a half across the broadest part 

 of its expanded wings. Its color is a brown- ' 

 ish orange, variegated with yellow and 

 black, in a small pattern. The under sides 

 of the wings are lighter, and chiefly orange 

 and yellow. 



The caterpillars of this insect are to 

 be seen, in some particular situations, in 

 September, in great abundance. As they 

 increase in size, they go abroad in search 

 of food; but their local attachment is very remarkable, for neither the 

 caterpillar, nor even the butterfly will stray far from the place where 

 it was bred. Numbers of the latter may sometimes be observed on 

 wing, in a small spot of swampy or marsh land, when not one of them 

 is to be met .with in any of the adjacent places. As they fly very low, 

 and frequently settle, the naturalist has no difficulty in catching them. 

 The caterpillars are generally at their full growth about the last week 

 in April. They now suspend themselves by the tail to change into 

 chrysalids, and in this state they remain about fourteen days. Their 

 mode of suspension is a singular instance of the extraordinary power 

 of instinct. They first draw two or three small blades of grass across 

 towards their top, and fasten them together by means of their silk , 

 then hang themselves beneath the centre of these, each having hia 

 own little canopy. By this means they are not only hidden from the 

 gight of birds, but in a great measure defended from the injury, which 

 they might otherwise sustain from windy and boisterous weather. 



OF THE SPHINGES, OR HAWKMOTHS. 



The bodies of these insects are usually thick and heavy, and their 

 wings long and admirably calculated for rapid flight. Some of them 

 are among the largest of the Lepidopterous Insects. They fly for the 

 most part, early in the morning, and late in the evening. They hover 



