CHAPTEE XL 



THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF ORNAMENTATION. 



DOUBTLESS every one is aware that the patterns 

 on the painted wings of butterflies are a sort of 

 mosaic, formed by tiny colored scales, which by 

 varied combinations make the most exquisite de- 

 signs. The very regular arrangement of these 

 scales may be less generally known ; for though 

 mere specks they overlie one another as slates on 

 a roof ; and just as figures made by the oblique 

 arrangement of colored slates appear from a dis- 

 tance to have straight and not serrate borders ; 

 so, through the minuteness of the scales, mark- 

 ings on a butterfly's wing, which really have rag- 

 ged edges, appear perfectly uniform. 



From this peculiarity of wing adornment a 

 whole order of insects, including those popularly 

 known as moths, millers, hawk or humming-bird 

 moths and butterflies, was named by Linne Lepi- 

 doptera scaly- wings. As a general, but by no 

 means universal, rule, the lowest of these insects 

 fly by night, those which hold a middle rank by 

 twilight, while the highest fly almost exclusively 

 by day. Many of the night or twilight species 



