XII. 



PSYCHOLOGICAL PECULIARITIES IN OUR BUTTER- 

 FLIES 



When I first mentioned to a company of friends 

 my intention to write an essay on this subject, a 

 scornful laugh greeted me, as if I were testing 

 their credulity. Yet no one, I fancy, could be a 

 close observer of butterflies without noticing that, 

 while there is no great difference between healthy 

 individuals of the same species, there is as great a 

 variety of temperament between different kinds as 

 there is between different sorts of quadrupeds, to 

 write an essay on whose psychological characters 

 would excite no special comment ; for the timidity 

 of the hare, the cunning oi the fox, the ferocity of 

 the wolf, and other psychical characteristics of 

 various beasts have become proverbial. 



In their relation to man one recognizes a great 

 difference between butterflies as to how companion- 

 able they may be. According to some wi-iters, 

 there would seem to be a certain variation among 



