790 



A HISTORY OF 



cone is completely finished. Some, however, 

 reinain buried in this artificial covering for 

 eight or nine months, without taking the 

 smallest sustenance during the whole time : 

 and though in the caterpillar state no animals 

 were so voracious, when thus transformed 

 they appear a miracle of abstinence. In nil, 

 sooner or later, the butterfly bursts from its 

 prison ; not only that natural prison which 

 is formed by the skin of the aurelia, but 

 also from that artificial one of silk, or any 

 other substance in which it has enclosed itself. 



The efforts which the butterfly makes to get 

 free from its aurelia state, are by no means so 

 violent as those which the insect had in chang- 

 ing from the caterpillar into the aurelia. The 

 quantity of moisture surrounding the butterfly 

 is by no means so great as that attending its 

 former change; and the shell of the aurelia 

 is so dry, that it may be cracked between the 

 fingers. 



If the animal be shut up within a cone, thr 

 butterfly always gets rid of the natural inter- 

 nal skin of the aurelia, before it eats its way 

 through the external covering which its own 

 industry has formed round it. In order to 

 observe the manner in which it thus gets rid 

 of the aurelia covering, we must cut open the 

 cone, and then we shall have an opportunity 

 of discovering the insect's efforts to emanci- 

 pate itself from its natural shell. When this 

 operation begins, there seems to be a violent 

 agitation in the humours contained within the 

 little animal's body. Its fluids seem driven, 

 by an hasty fermentation, through all the ves- 

 sels ; while it labours violently with its legs, 

 arid makes several other violent struggles to 

 get free. As all these motions concur with 

 the growth of the insect's wings and body, it 

 is impossible that the brittle skin which covers 

 it should longer resist : it at length gives way, 

 by bursting into four distinct and regular 

 pieces. The skin of the head and legs first 

 separates ; then the skin at the back flies 

 open, and dividing into two regular portions, 

 disengages the back and wings : then there 

 likewise happens another rupture, in that por- 



(a) These red drops, which several of the Butterfly 

 tribe discharge immediately upon their transformation, 

 have been recorded by ancient writers, as showers of 

 Wood, portending some convulsion of nature, or national 

 calamity. In the year 1608, the inhabitants of the town 

 f Aix were in the utmost consternation, in consequence 



tion which covered the rings of the back of 

 the aurelia. After this, the butterfly, as if 

 fatigued with its struggles, remains very quiet 

 for some time, with its wings pointed down- 

 wards, and its legs fixed in the skin which it 

 had just thrown off. At first sight tne animal, 

 just set free, and permitted the future use of 

 its wings, seenis to want them entirely ; they 

 take up such little room, that one would 

 wonder where they were hidden. But soon 

 after they expand so rapidly, that the rye can 

 scarce attend their unfolding. From reach- 

 ing scarce half the length of the body, 

 they acquire, in a most wonderful manner, 

 their full extent and bigness, so as to be each 

 five times larger than they were before. Nor 

 is it the wings alone that arc thus increased ; 

 all their spots and paintings, before so ininutj 

 as to be scarce discernible, are proportionably 

 extended : so that what a few minutes before 

 seemed only a number of confused unmeaning 

 points, now become distinct and most beauti- 

 ful ornaments. Nor are the wings, when they 

 are thus expanded, unfolded in the manner in 

 which earwigs and grasshoppers display theirs, 

 who unfurl them like a lady's fan : on the 

 contrary, those of butterflies actually grow to 

 their natural size in this very short space. 

 The wing, at the instant it is freed from its 

 late confinement, is considerably thicker than 

 afterwards; so that it spreads in all its dimen- 

 sions, growing thinner as it becomes broader. 

 If one of the wings be plucked from the ani* 

 mal just set free, it may be spread by the fin- 

 gers, and it will soon become as broad as the 

 other which has been left behind. As the 

 wings extend themselves so suddenly, they 

 have not yet had time to dry ; and according- 

 ly appear like pieces of wet paper, soft and 

 full of wrinkles. In about half an hour they 

 are perfectly dry, their wrinkles entirely dis- 

 appear, and the little animal assumes all its 

 splendour. The transmutation being thus 

 perfectly finished, the butterfly discharges 

 three or four drops of a blood-coloured liquid, 

 which are the last remains of its superfluous 

 moisture. 8 Those aurelias which are enclosed 



of a discharge of this kind, which fell in the suburbs, and 

 for some miles round. But the philosopher Pieresc soon 

 quietod their alarms, by showing them that the whole of 

 this wonder originated in a flight of harmlev; butterflies, 

 that had just taken wing from their chrysalis state, 



