ai 



upwards until about two-thirds of the pupa body 

 ia free. Now comes the most splendid part of the 

 whole operation, a part that is impossible to see 

 properly, and can only be watched and clearly 

 followed with some kind of magnifying glass. 

 Baising up his body, with one of the segments of 

 the abdomen he takss a firm hold of the old sbin 

 and then slowly and carefully draws out of the 

 old skin the tail end of himself which is furnished 

 with a tiny hook. Now raising himself up he 

 plants the hook firmly in the carpet of silk he 

 has fixed above, and with the most violent 

 wriggles and jerks and twists, secures a firm hold 

 for it, and at the same time breaks loose the old 

 skin, when, ieliberately lowering and straighten- 

 ing out his bo ly, be loosens his hold of the old skin 

 which falls to the ground as a tiny pellet of fur, 

 and he hangs suspended alone and secure. The 

 whole proceeding Irom the first splitting of the skin 

 occup>'ing only about a minute. I thought when 

 I firet saw this, I had never seen anything so 

 splendid before, and I feel it must give anyone 

 who sees it for the first time much food for 

 thought. Here is a creature alone and unaided 

 going through this wonderful change, evidently 

 without tuition, a thing he has never done before, 

 and certainly will never do again. What precison 

 is necessary for its successful accomplishments, 

 one false step — so to speak — an insecure hold, and 

 he falls to the ground, where he would soon die 

 or fall a rtady victim to one of his numerous 

 enemies. And we call this instinct. When he 

 first emerges his bcdy i^ soft and somewhat shape- 

 less, of a pale greenish white colour, with a 

 number of dark spots, and with the appearance of 

 being covered all over with gold powder. 

 Gradually his skin darkens and hardens until at 

 the end of a day he is now of a yellowish brown 

 colour. He now hangs like this for a period 

 which varies from 9 to 13 day? (probably the state 

 of the weather influences the time) at least, these 

 were the times taken by mine, until one fine day — 

 which is generally in the night — the end of the 



pupa CAse splits open, and out crawls the perfect 

 insect. At least, not perfect as we know him, hia 

 wings are soft and folded and crumbled, and so be 

 rests in this position for a few hours, during 

 which his wings dry and harden, and expand until 

 fully out as we now see him. I am sorry I have 

 never been able to see one of mine emerge. I 

 always found them in the early morning, 

 when they had been out certainly some hours. 

 This, then, is what is to be seen of the changes or 

 metamorphosis of the small tortoiseshell — or at 

 least what I thought I saw — my eyes may have 

 deceived me in some minute particulars, but I 

 carefully watched it with a glass two or three 

 tim^s, and each time it seemed more beautiful 

 and wonderful than before. It is a difficult thing 

 to try to show by photography, as the most beau- 

 tiful acts are beyond the power of the lens to 

 show, and the constant movement in others makes 

 the exposure very difficult. 



And now, in conclusion, I wish to say that these 

 few notes, which, from want of time, mu=t, of 

 necessity, be most fragmentary, and can in no case 

 attempt to deal with the extremely interesting 

 life history that attaches to many of the subjects — 

 must be only taken as suggestive of the vast field 

 for work and study open to the photographic 

 naturjlist. The amount we have just seen are 

 only just the fringe of the subject, a subject 

 practically inexhaustable, one that will give 

 employment to the most energetic worker 

 for the whole oF his lite, and still have some 

 over. Difficulties there may be in the work, 

 but when overcome, as we all know, success is 

 much more precious, and the results more prized 

 than if they had been gained with little or 

 no difficulty. In spite of the difficulties, often 

 many failures and lew successes, I still feel that 

 of all the interesting branches of our art or 

 science, or whatever you may be pleased to call ifc, 

 there is none that can compare in point of interest 

 (for me at any rate) with Natural Histori 

 Photography. 



TENTH WINTER MEETING.— APRIL 5th, 1904. 



'NATUEE STCDY : ITS PLEASUEES AND BENEFITS."— By Me. C. 



BUCKINGHAM. 



The tenth meeting was held at the Beaney 

 Institute, ander the presidency of Mr. Sidney 

 Harvey, and there was a very good attendance of 

 members. Amongst the exhibits was a particu- 

 larly int^restiug X ray pho^og^aph of a malforma- 

 tion in the growth of the ribs of a young woman 

 of sixteen years. This was shown and explained 

 by Mr. A. Lander, who also mentioned that on 

 Good Friday more sunshine was registered in 

 Canterbury^ than in any of the surrounding towns. 

 The feature of the evening was a paper given by 

 ilr. C. Buckingham, un "Nature Study," which 

 was of a most interesting character and well illus- 

 trated by lantern slides. 



The lover of Nature who delights to enquire 

 into and enj »y her beauties and wonders, will 

 not go far into his studies before he begins to feel 

 its humiliating effects, be will marvel at his very 

 existence, he will feel how indebted he is, both to 

 Nature and Society. We are so busy in the daily 

 pursuits of life, that it is not until we have learned 

 to broaden our minds and use a portion of our 

 leisure away from our crowded thoroughfares, 

 exchanging for a time the humdrum of civilised 

 life for the woods and fields, hills and valleyp, 

 then, amid th** enjoyment and freedom of thought, 

 one cannot but feel the existence of that gap 

 which lies between the monotony of civilised life 



