206 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



The Genus Papilio. 



This genus, called by Linnaeus Knights or Chevaliers, com- 

 prises mostly large butterflies with broad wings, and gener- 

 ally with a long swallow-like tail at the extremity of the 

 hind wings. Some of these butterflies have red spots, like 

 stars, on the breast, similar to the decorations of sovereigns 

 and princes, as well as of the policemen of New York, one 

 of whom, on account of the star on his blue uniform coat, 

 was once mistaken for his Royal Highness the Elector of 

 Hesse Cassel by a newly-arrived Hessian emigrant, who at 

 once began to revenge himself for past oppressions by at- 

 tacking the policeman like Don Quixote, the barber, with 

 Manibrino's helmet. Linnaeus designated these butterflies 

 by the name of Trojan Knights, and those without the red 

 spot he called Greek Knights. 



Notwithstanding their usual large size and elegant dress 

 they are often seen looking very shabbily ; for their colors 

 soon fade, and their wings get torn by their flying through 

 thorny bushes when chased by birds, when they look very 

 much like an old bachelor fop who has dissipated his prop- 

 erty, and appears with threadbare clothes a laughing- 

 stock to all the young girls. 



These aerial knights, some would doubtless say, are of no 

 use to man ; but the admirer of Nature, as we have before 

 said, never thinks any of her works useless. He can al- 

 ways see in them something that is attractive nay, that is 

 positively useful either in the moral lesson they teach or 

 in the practical benefits derived from them, directly or in- 

 directly. Thus these butterflies, although they do not di- 

 rectly minister to the animal wants of man, yet have always 

 so beautified the countiy with their splendid colors and 

 ethereal forms that any person of soul or sense would find 

 something wanting to complete the beauty of Nature's sum- 

 mer face, did he not see them sporting in our gardens, and 



