? HISTORY OF 



male by one aperture, and lay their eggs by 

 another. 



The eggs of female butterflies are disposed in 

 the body like a bed of chaplets, which, when ex- 

 cluded, are usually oval, and of a whitish colour; 

 some, however, are quite round, and others flatted 

 like a turnip. The covering or shell of the egg, 

 though solid, is thin and transparent ; and in pro- 

 portion as the caterpillar grows within the egg, 

 the colours change, and are distributed differently. 

 The butterfly seems very well instructed by na- 

 ture in its choice of the plant or the leaf where it 

 shall deposit its burden. Each egg contains but 

 one caterpillar, and it is requisite that this little 

 animal, when excluded, should be near its pecu- 

 liar provision. The butterfly, therefore, is care- 

 ful to place her brood only upon those plants that 

 afford good nourishment to its posterity. Though 

 the little winged animal has been fed itself upon 

 dew, or the honey of flowers, yet it makes choice 

 for its young of a very different provision, and 

 lays its eggs on the most unsavoury plants the 

 ragweed, the cabbage, or the nettle. Thus every 

 butterfly chooses, not the plant most grateful to 

 it in its winged state, but such as it has fed upon 

 in its reptile form. 



All the eggs of butterflies are attached to the 

 leaves of the favourite plant, by a sort of size or 

 glue, where they continue unobserved, unless 

 carefully sought after. The eggs are sometimes 

 placed round the tender shoots of plants, in the 

 form of bracelets, consisting of above two hun- 

 dred in each, and generally surrounding the shoot, 



