no POSTURES OF BUTTERFLIES 



butterflies to warmth and sunshine. We have 

 alluded in another place to the diurnal movements 

 of even hibernating butterflies ; and one is amused 

 at watching with what precision a Melitaeid, for 

 example, or a Polygonia, sidles around on alight- 

 ing, to expose the broadest possible surface to the 

 sun. Startle one of the latter, but not sufficiently 

 to make it leave the spot, and with what a snap 

 the wings close, and, in place of the burning colors 

 wliich seem to have imbibed the sun's warmth, 

 your butterfly, with the dead leaf or dusty color 

 of its under-surface brought to view, has become 

 nearly invisible. 



Butterflies are not much given to walking, but 

 in the use of their legs they have many little 

 peculiarities which generally mark whole groups. 

 Thus the Satyrids always walk by a series of 

 nervous twitches in a very bunghng fashion un- 

 known, I believe, outside of this group. Many 

 Theclini never remain on the surface of the leaf 

 or twig on which they have pitched facing in the 

 direction in which they have alighted, but turn 

 part way around to face another way, and that 

 with no reference to the sun; they do the same 

 when the sun is wholly obscured. 



At sleep, the wings are packed away into the 



