178 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEAV ENGLAXI). 



straight, tlic outer irregular and also indicated above on the fore wings. 

 In the structure of the head this genus approaches Oeneis rather than Cer- 

 cyonis ; from the latter it is clearly distinct in the shape of the front, the 

 pilosity of the eyes and the want of erect tufts of hairs on the apical 

 palpal joint. 



There is but a single brood each year, the butterflies appearing Ijefore 

 midsummer. The egg is spheroidal and smooth. The head of the larva 

 is crowned with a pair of long, conical horns, and the last segment of the 

 abdomen is furnished with similar projections ; the body is pale, with 

 longitudinal stripes of dark green. The chrysalis is well rounded, with a 

 bluntly arched head and a well curved abdomen, terminating in a long, 

 slender cremaster, by which it is suspended. 



A fossil butterfly belonging to a closely allied extinct genus has been 

 found in the tertiaries of southern France. 



EXCURSUS III.— THE GENERAL CHANGES IN A BUTTER- 

 FLY'S LIFE AND FORM. 



Who that beholds the summer's glistering swarms, 

 Ten thousand thousand gaily gilded forms, 

 In volant dance of mix'd rotation play, 

 Bask in the beam, and beautify the day ; 

 Who'd think these airy wantons so adorn, 

 Were late his vile antipatliy and scorn, 

 Prone to the dust, or reptile thro' the mire, 

 And ever thence unlikely to aspire? 

 Or who with transient view, ))eholding, loaths 

 Those crawling sects, whom vilest semblance cloaths; 

 Who, with corruption, hold their kindred state. 

 As ))y coiitemiit, or negligence of fate; 

 Could thinly, that such, rc\ers'd liy wondrous doom, 

 Sublinier jiowers and brighter forms assume; 

 From death, their future happier life derive, 

 And tho' apparently entomb'd, revive; 

 Chang'd, thro' amazing transmigration rise, 

 And wing the regions of unwonted skies ; 

 So late depress'd, contemptible on earth, 

 Now elevate to heaven by second birth? 



Henry BjiOOViF,,— Universal Beauty. 



More than fifty years ago, that prince of dreamers, Oken, wrote : "The 

 insect passes through three stages prior to its attaining the adult or perfect 

 condition. It is at first Worm, next Crab, then a perfect volant animal 

 with limbs, a Fly." 



A sagacious observation, of which full use was made by Agassiz in com- 

 paring its ontologic and phylogenic development. In external form the 

 caterpillar so closely resembles a worm that in common language it is often 

 so called ; it is a long cylindrical object with many legs by which it drags 

 its whole length upon the ground ; its body consists of a series of rings 

 placed end to end ; its head, it is true, is more or less separated from the 

 rest of the body, but yet agrees so well in general size and form with the 

 segments behind that the distinction often only appears upon examination ; 



