ATTACUS ATLAS: A LIFE-HISTORY. 3L 
All this was to be learned afterwards. There it was, clinging 
to its own vacated cocoon, with horizontal wings; and thence 
it-allowed me to remove it, tenderly, to another foot-hold, on 
which it remained till noon in my full sight, with no attempt at 
motion, except an occasional slow and dignified flap of the vast 
wings. Reluctantly, to preserve its perfect beauty, I now 
prepared a bed of bruised laurel, in a tight glass vessel, to which 
I transferred it together with its foot-hold. It stirred no more 
than before, soon lapsed into perfect quietude, and, as I hope, 
insensibility, under the powerful narcotic. At the end of seven 
hours I introduced a drop of Cyan. Pot. Sol. into the thorax by 
the side; though there was not the slightest sign of life; then 
pinned and set it, (by means of narrow strips of thin paper across 
the wings) with perfect ease and success. 
Was I not a little hasty in closing the life of my beautiful 
new-born? I had yet another cocoon in my box, and I had some 
reason to think it would prove a female. But this was uncertain. 
If so, it might not evolve for a fortnight, and I might get no 
marriage. I knew that a single night’s liberty would spoil the 
exquisite beauty of my treasure. And so, having well weighed 
the pro and con, I thought it safest to secure the moth for my 
cabinet in its perfection. 
Possibly, had I read the future, my decision might have been 
different; for two days had not quite elapsed, when my other 
cocoon produced the imago, and this a female! It had, however, 
fallen from its hold of the suspended cocoon before I sawit; and 
contact with the bottom of the cage had prevented its due 
expansion; for, while the fore wings were perfect, the hind wings 
were shrunken and shrivelled. It was of a very different variety 
from the male, being of the two-windowed division, answering to 
var. y of the Cat. Br. Mus., p. 1219. The distortion of the 
wings rendering this example useless for the cabinet, I determined 
to see how long she would live; and therefore placed her in a 
bell-glass of fourteen inches’ diameter, quite open, as she was 
incapable of flight, the vessel resting in a flower-pot on a table in 
my study. She survived fifteen days, vigorous most of the time; 
for a week at least, I think she continued nubile, if there had 
been a bridegroom at hand. During the day she was motionless, 
the wings expanded horizontally ; but at night-fall she began to 
flap her great wings with much vigour and incessant pertinacity, 
