74 HISTORY OF 



search being repeated seven or eight times, the 

 butterfly then passes to another ; and continues 

 to hover over those agreeable to its taste, like 

 a bird over its prey. This trunk consists of two 

 equal hollow tubes, nicely joined to each other, 

 like the pipes of an organ. 



Such is the figure and conformation of these 

 beautiful insects, that cheer our walks, and give 

 us the earliest intimations of summer. But it is 

 not by day alone that they are seen fluttering 

 wantonly from flower to flower, as the greatest 

 number of them fly by night, and expand the 

 most beautiful colouring at those hours when 

 there is no spectator. This tribe of insects has 

 therefore been divided into Diurnal and Noctur- 

 nal Flies, or, more properly speaking, into But- 

 terflies and Moths ; the one flying only by day, 

 the other most usually on the wing in the night. 

 They may be easily distinguished from each other 

 by their horns or feelers ; those of the butterfly 

 being clubbed, or knobbed at the end, those of 

 the moth tapering finer and finer to a point. To 

 express it technically the feelers of butterflies 

 are clavated, those of moths are filiform. 



The butterflies, as well as the moths, employ 

 the short life assigned them in a variety of enjoy- 

 ments. Their whole time is spent either in quest 

 of food, which every flower offers, or in pursuit 

 of the female, whose approach they can often 

 perceive at two miles distance. Their sagacity 

 in tli is particular is not less astonishing than true ; 

 but by what sense they are thus capable of dis- 

 tinguishing each other at such distances, is riot 



