BUTTERFLY-HUNTING. 7 



entirely closed up in a horny case, powerless to move, 

 except just to wag the hinder segments of the body. 

 This helpless mummy-like object is called a pupa, or 

 chrysalis. The pupa may usually be found fastened by 

 silk of the larva's spinning to a wall, the food-plant, or 

 some other convenient object. 



Usually after from ten to twenty days the last change 

 takes place, the thick end of the pupa splits open in 

 several directions, and the perfect insect, called an 

 imago* or butterfly, emerges, with large body and tiny, 

 damp, and rumpled wings. The butterfly suspends itself 

 by its legs, and begins shaking out its wings. In an 

 hour or so they have attained their full size, and carry 

 their owner off to enjoy its few weeks of sunny existence. 

 All that the insect has now to do is to flirt awhile, and, 

 if a female, lay eggs before it dies, except in the case of 

 a few species, which sleep through the winter, and, when 

 warm days return with the spring, appear again to re- 

 produce their kind. 



Butterfly-hunting. 



It is a bright sunny morning in June, with very little 

 wind stirring, and what there is of it coming from a 

 westerly or south-westerly direction a morning as inviting 

 to the butterfly-hunter as it no doubt is to the insects he 

 would like to capture. Let the former sally forth with 

 the expectation that if butterflies, due at that time of 

 the year, are to be found in his district, he will have 

 a fair hope of taking them. He need not reach his 

 hunting-ground much before nine, for very few butterflies 

 are on the wing earlier than that ; nor, however enthu- 

 siastic he* may be, will he find it of much use to remain 



* Imago, distinct and perfect form. 



