4 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



There was not lefs diverfity in their wings. Tn 

 fome they were long and brilliant, like tranfpa- 

 rent plates of mother-of-pearl; in others, fliort 

 and broad, refembling net-work of the fineft 

 gauze. Each had his particular manner of dii- 

 pofing and managing his wings. Some difpofed 

 theirs perpendicularly ; others, horizontally ; and 

 they feemed to take pleafure in difplaying them. 

 Some flew fpirally, after the manner of butterflies ; 

 others fprung into the air, direding their flight in 

 oppofition to the wind, by a mechanifm fomewhat 

 fimilar to that of a paper-kite, which, in riflng, 

 forms, with the axis of the wind, an angle, I think, 

 of twenty-two degrees and a half. 



Some alighted on the plant to depofit their eggs; 

 others, merely to flielter themfelves from the Sun. 

 But the greatefl part . paid, this vifit from reafons 

 totally unknown to me : for fome went and came, 

 in an inceflant motion, while others moved only 

 the hinder part of their body. A great many of 

 them remained entirely motionlefs, and were Hke 

 me, perhaps, employed in making obfervations. 



I fcorned to pay any attention, as being already 

 fufficiently known, to all the other tribes of infeds, 

 which my flrawberry plant had attraded ; fuch as 

 the fnail, which neftles under the leaves; the but- 

 terfly, which flutters around i the beetle, which 



digs 



