INTRODUCTION. 63 



of certain kinds, possess an extraordinary acuteness 

 in the sense of smell (or, it may be, are gifted with 

 some peculiar faculty the nature of which is un- 

 known to us), by the intimations of which they can 

 discover the opposite sex at a great distance, and in 

 the most secret situations. Advantage is often taken 

 by collectors of this circumstance to secure specimens 

 of the rarer kinds, and the following plan, as de- 

 scribed by Mr. Haworth, may frequently be followed 

 with success when most others are unavailing. " It 

 is a frequent practice," he says, " with London 

 Aurelians, when they breed a female of this and 

 some other day-flying species (he speaks of Lasio- 

 campa Quercus)^ to take her, while yet a virgin, 

 into the vicinity of woods, when, if the weather be 

 favourable, she never fails to attract a numerous 

 train of males, whose only business seems to be an 

 incessant, rapid, and undulating flight in search of 

 their unimpregnated females. One of which is no 

 sooner perceived, than they become so much ena- 

 moured of their fair and chaste relation, as absolutely 

 to lose all kind of fear for their own personal safety, 

 which, at other times, is effectually secured by the 

 reiterated evolutions of their strong and rapid wings. 

 So fearless indeed have I beheld them on these 

 occasions, as to climb up and down the sides of the 

 cage which contained the object of their eager 

 pursuit, in exactly the same hurrying manner as 

 honey-bees, which have lost themselves, climb up 

 and down the glasses of a window." The Chinese 

 likewise turn this ardour in pursuit of the female 



