TRANSFORMATION OF ANIMALS. 15? 



ited under the skin, and as the successive changes take place, 

 the sack in which it is contained, is enlarged to accommodate 

 its increasing size.' 



Serpents cast their skins annually. The beauty and lustre 

 of their colors are then highly augmented. Before casting, 

 the old skins have a tarnished and withered appearance. 

 The old skins, like the first set of teeth in children, are forced 

 off by the growth of the new. 



The crustaceous tribes, as lobsters, crabs, &c., beside the 

 different appearances they assume while growing to perfec- 

 tion, cast their shells every year. When this change is about 

 to happen, they retire into the crevices of rocks, or shelter 

 themselves below detached stones, with a view to conceal 

 and defend their bodies from the rapacious attacks of other 

 fishes. After the shells are cast, the animals are exceedingly 

 weak and defenceless. Instead of their natural defence of 

 hard shells and strong claws, they are covered only with a 

 thin membrane or skin. In this state they become an easy 

 prey to almost every fish that swims. The skin, however, 

 gradually thickens and grows harder, till it acquires the usual 

 degree of firmness. By this time the animals have resumed 

 their former strength and activity ; they come out from their 

 retirements, and go about in quest of food. 



We come now to give some account of the transformations 

 of insects, which are both various and wonderful. All winged 

 insects, without exception, and many of those which are 

 destitute of wings, must pass through several changes before 

 the animals arrive at the perfection of their natures. The 

 appearance, the structure, and the organs of a caterpillar, of 

 a chrysalis, and of a fly, are so different, that, to a person 

 unacquainted with their transformations, an identical animal 

 would be considered as three distinct species. Without the 

 aid of experience, who could believe that a butterfly, adorned 

 with four beautiful wings, furnished with a long spiral pro- 

 boscis, or tongue, instead of a mouth, and with six legs, 

 should have proceeded from a disgusting, hairy caterpillar, 

 provided with jaws and teeth, and fourteen feet? Without 

 experience, who could imagine that a long, white, smooth, 

 soft worm, hid under the earth, should be transformed into a 

 black, crustaceous beetle, having wings covered with horny 

 elytra, or cases ? 



Upon this branch of the subject, we shall, first, give an ex- 

 ample of two of the most common transformations of insects; 

 and, secondly, describe some of the more uncommon kinds 

 11 



