48 



MECHANICAL FUNCTIONS. 



ries of natural phenomena which man has been allowed 

 to witness. Who can study such traits of nature, with- 

 out acknowledging the care, design, and wisdom of the 

 Creator to be displayed in them in a most striking and 

 wonderful degree. 



Wing Scales of Butterflies. The soft down which 

 covers the wings of Butterflies and Moths, which ap- 

 pears like the finest dust, and by which all the splendid 

 variety of colors are given to these insects, is found when 

 magnified, to consist, of scales, or feathers, of different, 

 but regular forms. It is from these scales that the 

 name of this genus, Lepidoptera, "scaly-winged," is 

 given. 



According to some naturalists, these minute parts 

 should be considered rather as feathers than as scales, 

 since they are affixed to the wings by minute quills. 

 But others consider them as scales from their being 

 composed of merely membranous plates, having nothing 

 in common with feathers excepting perhaps, the manner 

 in which they are attached. The reader may have the 

 Fig. 36. . 



opportunity of deciding this matter for himself, by con- 

 sulting Fig. 36, where the forms of a number of these 

 parts are shown, highly magnified. The number of 

 these on the wings of the larger Butterflies, must amount 



