206 BUTTERFLY. 



drops of a red-coloured fluid, more or less intense 

 in different species. This circumstance, exclusive 

 of its analogy to the same process of Nature in 

 other animals, is peculiarly worthy of attention 

 from the explanation which it affords of a pheno- 

 menon sometimes considered, both in ancient and 

 modern times, in the light of a prodigy; viz. the 

 descent of red drops from the air; which has been 

 called a shower of blood: an event recorded bv 

 several writers, and particularly by Ovid, among 

 the prodigies which took place after the death of 

 the great dictator. 



te Saepe faces visae mediis ardere sub astris, 

 Saepe inter nimbos guttae cecidere cruentae." 



With threatening signs the lowering skies were fill'd, 

 And sanguine drops from murky clouds distill'd. 



This highly rational elucidation of a pheno- 

 menon at first view so inexplicable, seems to have 

 been first given by the celebrated Peiresc, who 

 with his own eyes observed the vestiges of an ap- 

 pearance of this kind in France in the year 1608, 

 and was clearly convinced of its real origin, viz. 

 the discharge above-mentioned from a species of 

 Butterfly, (perhaps the P. urticae, or P. poly- 

 chloros,) which happened during that season to 

 be uncommonly plentiful in the particular district 

 where the phenomenon was observed. The same 

 idea was also entertained by Swammerdam, though 

 he does not appear to have verified it from his own 

 observation. 



