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the plains. The writer went on to speak of insects rare or not found 

 here. P. Machaon was plentiful almost everywhere. P. Podolarus 

 much less so. P. Apollo was the most abundant butterfly near 

 Courmayeur, V.C. Album was plentiful, V. Antiopa frequent, 

 Fritillaries and Blues were excessively abundant and were thirsty 

 souls, swarming on damp parts of roads, and at times feeding on 

 garbage, such as a recently crushed grasshopper. The little 

 Burnet moths, of several sorts, were very plentiful, as were flower- 

 loving bright metallic beetles. The abundance of Burnets was very 

 noticeable ; frequently one could see five or six on a single flower. 

 Day-flying insects seemed more ready to fly in weather not 

 absolutely sunny than they are here, where clouds are above and 

 more sharply defined, than there where the observer is as 

 much among the clouds as below them. Mr. M. concluded with 

 some general observations to the effect, that he considered there 

 was evidence that the insect mind was more complex than was 

 ordinarily supposed, and that many of their actions were directly 

 prompted by other motives than the simple necessity of providing 

 for the existence and maintenance of the species. Animals far 

 below the human one he thought plainly manifested such qualities 

 as vanity, playfulness, jealousy, anger, sensitiveness to ridicule, 

 &c. Singing birds surely must appreciate music. Bower birds 

 practised decorative art, and he could hardly account for the 

 beauty of many butterflies except by supposing that they had 

 some perception of beauty of colour aud perhaps also of form and 

 movement. It was not the beauty of symmetry, like that of the 

 snow crystals or the honeycomb, or that which was proper to the 

 kaleidoscope. If any creature low in the animal scale might be 

 expected to have this appreciation, it was the butterfly, in which 

 owing to its metamorphoses, all the emotional part of its nature, 

 if it is capable of any, was crowded into the very short period of 

 its life during which it had wings and was subject to the excite- 

 ment and emulation arising from difference of sex. 



