10 INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 



most common butterflies^. Feathers are thought to 

 be peculiar to birds ; but insects often imitate thera 

 in their antennas'', wings', and even sometimes in the 

 covering of their bodies*^. — We admire with reason the 

 coats of quadrupeds, wliether their skins be covered 

 with pile, or wool, or fur, yet are not perhaps aware 

 that a vast variety of insects are clothed with all these 

 kinds of hair, but infinitely finer and more silky in tex- 

 ture, more brilliant and delicate in colour, and more 

 variously shaded than what any other animals can pre- 

 tend to. 



In variegation insects certainly exceed every other 

 class of animated beings. Nature, in her sportive mood, 

 when painting them, sometimes imitates the clouds of 

 heaven ; at others, the meandring course of the rivers 

 of the earth, or the undulations of their waters: many 

 are veined like beautiful marbles; others have the 

 semblance of a robe of the finest net-work thrown over 

 them ; some she blazons with heraldic insignia, giving 

 them to bear in fields sable — azure — vert — gules — ar- 

 gent and or, fesses — bars — bends — crosses — crescents 

 — stars, and even animals •". On many, taking her rule 

 and compasses, she draws with precision mathematical 

 figures; points, lines, angles, triangles'^, squares, and 

 circles. On others she pourtrays, with mystic hand, 

 what seem like hieroglyphic symbols, or inscribes them 

 with the characters and letters of various languages, 

 often very correctly formed^; and what is more extra- 



^ Papilio Jo, L. '' Culex, L. Chironomus, Meig. 



and other Tipulidce. " Pterophorus, F. 



" Hairsof many of the ^pj(7tr, Mvn. Jp. ^ng. J. t.]0, **(\,l.f. I, b. 



* Plimis iinijerialis, L. ' Trichina delta, F. 



^ Prionus longimanits, F. Papilio C. alburn^ L. Bomhyx 4'^ Noclua y, F. 



