146 



Life and Immortality. 



affections. He enters his suit, he pleads his great love, and 

 awaits her sweet pleasure. The answer is brief, and soon 

 by their actions, as high up in the air they circle and circle, 

 caressing each other with strokes of the antennae, the story 

 is told that his love has been requited. A brief honey-moon 

 of two or three days and the love-scene is over, and the two 

 settle down to the prosy realities of everyday life. The male 

 goes back to his old-time pursuit of rifling the flowers of their 



MOURNING-CLOAK BUTTERFLY. 

 Larva Feeding on Willow Leaf, and Chrysalis Suspended from Twig. 



honeyed treasures, whilst the female, upon whom devolves 

 the duty of providing for the offspring whom she is never 

 likely to see, looks scrutinizingly about for her favorite trees, 

 the poplar, the elm, or the willow. In her selection of a 

 tree a wonderfully keen discernment is shown, for she seldom, 

 if ever, mistakes her plant-species. 



When a choice has been made, no time is expended in 

 fruitless endeavor. She proceeds at once to deposit her eggs. 



