Swallow-Tailed Butterflies 155 



prop legs on the last seetion of the body. All these 

 fleshy legs are soft and can shape themselves to 

 fit the branch upon which they rest. The feet to 

 them, if we may be allowed to use such a word 

 for the bottoms of these fat legs, are nothing more 

 than cushions. That they are not real legs, but 

 only artificial limbs to help the baby butterfly creep, 

 is shown by the fact that when the insect comes out 

 of the chrysalis in perfect form, there are no props 

 on the tail and no cushioned piano stools along 

 the belly. 



The caterpillars to the butterflies have a habit 

 of hanging themselves by their tail before chang- 

 ing to the chrj^salis form, or putting a belt strap 

 on around the body, so that after they have shed 

 the caterpillar skin and becomes a helpless mummy 

 the band of silk holds them to the limb of the tree 

 or the paling of the fence until the butterfly 

 emerges. 



The butterfly is much shorter, as a rule, than 

 the miller and it also is more slender and graceful 

 in its body and of a livelier disposition than its 

 night-flying relative. It disdains a cocoon and 

 delights in artistic and decorative mummy cases in 

 which secretly to change its clothes. It, too, has a 



