BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS. ?1 



tion very strong, though light ; and though it be 

 covered over with thousands of these scales or 

 studs, yet its weight is very little increased by the 

 number. The animal is with ease enabled to 

 support itself a long while in air, although its 

 flight be not very graceful. When it designs to 

 fly to a considerable distance, it ascends and des- 

 cends alternately ; going sometimes to the right, 

 sometimes to the left, without any apparent 

 reason. Upon closer examination, however, it 

 will be found that it flies thus irregularly in pur- 

 suit of its mate ; and as dogs bait and quarter the 

 ground in pursuit of their game, so these insects 

 traverse the air in quest of their mates, whom 

 they can discover at more than a mile's distance. 



If we prosecute our description of the butter- 

 fly, the animal may be divided into three parts ; 

 the head, the corslet, and the body. 



The body is the hinder part of the butterfly, 

 and is composed of rings, which are generally 

 concealed under long hair, with which that part 

 of the animal is clothed. The corslet is more 

 solid than the rest of the body, because the fore 

 wings and the legs are fixed therein. The legs 

 are six in number, although four only are made 

 use of by the animal ; the two fore legs being 

 often so much concealed in the long hair of the 

 body, that it is sometimes difficult to discover 

 them. If we examine these parts internally, we 

 shall find the same set of vessels in the butterfly 

 that we observed in the caterpillar, but with this 

 great difference, that as the blood, or humours, 

 in the caterpillar, circulated from the tail to the 



