204 SOCIAL LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD 



season. I have never seen it around our village or in 

 the solitude of my grounds during a residence of twenty 

 years. It is true that I am not a fervent butterfly-catcher ; 

 the dead insect of the collector's cabinet has little interest 

 for me ; I must have it living, in the exercise of its 

 functions. But although I have not the collector's zeal 

 I have an attentive eye to all that flies or crawls in the 

 fields. A butterfly so remarkable for its size and 

 colouring would never have escaped my notice had I 

 encountered it. 



The little searcher whom I had enticed by a promise 

 of rides upon wooden horses never made a second 

 find. For three years I requisitioned friends and 

 neighbours, and especially their children, sharp-sighted 

 snappers-up of trifles ; I myself hunted often under 

 heaps of withered leaves ; I inspected stone-heaps and 

 visited hollow tree-trunks. Useless pains ; the precious 

 cocoon was not- to be found. It is enough to say that the 

 Banded Monk is extremely rare in my neighbourhood. 

 The importance of this fact will presently appear. 



As I suspected, my cocoon was truly that of the 

 celebrated Oak Eggar. On the 20th of August a female 

 emerged from it : corpulent, big-bellied, coloured like 

 the male, but lighter in hue. I placed her under the 

 usual wire cover in the centre of my laboratory table, 

 littered as it was with books, bottles, trays, boxes, test- 

 tubes, and other apparatus. I have explained the situa- 

 tion in speaking of the Great Peacock. Two windows 

 light the room, both opening on the garden. One 

 was closed, the other open day and night. The 

 butterfly was placed in the shade, between the lines 

 of the two windows, at a distance of 12 or 15 feet. 



