260 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



cork, but so as to allow a free communication with 

 the external air by paring off a piece from the 

 side of the cork. 



Thus prepared, he put the glass egg together 

 with the others in the nest. The hen was a little 

 more sensible than Reaumur had given her credit 

 for ; and though she did not thrust the egg out of 

 her nest, she removed it to the outside, where she 

 was so obliging as to permit it to remain ; and as 

 it was here just as warm as if it had been in the 

 centre of the eggs, Reaumur did not attempt to 

 interfere with her arrangements. A great deal of 

 moisture arose from the bodies of the pupae, and 

 condensed like dew on the sides of the glass ; but 

 after a day or two this disappeared. The reader 

 may now be anxious to learn the result of this 

 experiment. It was equally successful; indeed, 

 it was more so than the preceding, for in the 

 afternoon of the tenth day a pretty little butterfly 

 was seen within his glass egg, being the first that 

 had appeared of the eight pupae, and the first 

 ever hatched under the bosom of a hen ! The 

 remaining pupae, all but two, appeared soon after ; 

 these two died. Perhaps the warmth of their 

 glassy cell was too violent for them, for it was 



