52 INTRODUCTION. 



they are doubtless deserving of this preference. 

 Their wings are augmented to a size that seems 

 quite disproportioned to that of the body, as if na- 

 ture had wished to enlarge the surface on which she 

 was to employ her pencil, that it might admit of 

 more varied and profuse decoration. Even the un- 

 der face of the wings, contrary to what is observed 

 in other flying animals, is usually as much adorned 

 as the surface, and often in an entirely different man- 

 ner. Each wing, therefore, presents what may be 

 called two different pictures. No kind of ornament 

 found among other insects is omitted in this favoured 

 tribe; and so many new modes of embellishment are 

 employed, that Nature seems to have made them the 

 jjects of her peculiar care, and designed them, as 

 has been remarked by the learned and pious Ray, 

 for the adornment of the universe, and to form de- 

 lightful objects for the contemplation of man, bear- 

 ing conspicuous marks of the hand of a Divine Art- 

 ist. * 



The habits of these insects are well fitted to con- 

 firm the preference we assign to their beauty. Un- 

 like many others of this class, which delight to riot 

 among substances most offensive to our senses, or 



* Usus Papilionum* ad ornatum universi, et ut homi- 

 nibus spectaculo sint ; ad rura illustranda velut tot brac- 

 tese inservientes. Quis enim eximiam earum pulchritudi- 

 nem et varietatem contemplans mira voluptate non afficia- 

 tur ? Quis tot colorum et schematum elegantias naturae 

 sius d ivinae artis vestigia eis impressa non agnoscat et mi- 

 retur? RAII, Hist. Insect. 109. 



