SWALLOW-TAIL. 65 



the day), you may be fortunate enough on one of theso 

 occasions, to find the creature either actually emerging, o? 

 just out of his case ; cutting an odd figure, and evidently 

 neither very proud of himself nor much at his ease, 

 his wings being tiny things, hardly bigger than thos^ 

 of a humble-bee, and hanging limply from his compa- 

 ratively ponderous and gigantic body ; which they are 

 nevertheless destined, ere many hours are over, to carry 

 with most enviable celerity through the air. 



The rapid increase in size of these organs is a mattei 

 of marvel ; you can literally see them grow, and within 

 about an hour they will have reached their full expanse. 

 The creature attaches itself, back downwards, to the lid 

 of its cage, or to the under side of any convenient 

 horizontal surface, that the wings, by their own weight, 

 may aid in their dilatation, and that they may dry with- 

 out creasing, as they will sometimes do, when the insect, 

 being under a slippery bell-glass, for instance, is unable 

 to reach the desirable point of suspension, which it 

 always evinces extreme anxiety to do. By the time the 

 sun is well out, our pet will have his wings thoroughly 

 plumed for flight ; and here a difficulty sometimes pre- 

 sents itself to the entomologist. "What is to bo done 

 with our new-born Machaon? It is probably a splendid 

 specimen for the cabinet, and the collector may long td 

 grace his "series" with its virgin splendours. Bu 

 then there will creep over him the unwelcome sensation 

 that it is a somewhat cowardly proceeding to foster a 

 blight V^ing into a life that might be all joyousnesa, 

 P 



