74 



pe&ted seven or eight time?, the butterfly then passes to 

 another, and continues to hover over those agreeable 

 to its taste, like a bird over its prey. This trunk con. 

 sists of two hollow tubes nicely joined like the pipes of 

 an organ. 



Butterflies as well as moths employ their short lives 

 in a variety of enjoyments. Their whole time is spent 

 either in quest of food, which every flower offers, or 

 in pursuit of the female, whose approach t'<ey often 

 perceive at above two miles distance. Their sagacity 

 in this particular is astonishing; but by what sense 

 they are capable of doing this is not easy to conceive. 

 It cannot be by sight, since such small objects must be 

 utterly imperceptible at half the distance : it can scarce- 

 ly be by the sense of smelling, since the animal has 

 no organs for that purpose. Whatever be their powers 

 of perception, certain it is, that the male, after having 

 fluttered, as if carelessly about, for some time, is seeu 

 to take wing aud go forward, sometimes for two miles 

 together, in a direct line to where the female is perch- 

 ed on a flower. 



Caterpillars are of no scx^ it not being their busi- 

 ness to propagate till^ they commence butterflies. Yet 

 many of them are not so harmless as they seem ; for 

 ihey destroy their fellows whenever they can. Put 

 twenty caterpillars of the oak together in a box, with 

 a sufficient quantity of leaves, their natural food, yet 

 * their numbers will decrease daily, till one only re- 

 mains alive. The stronger seizes the weaker by the 

 throat, and gives him a mortal wound. When he is 

 dead, the murderer begins to eat 'him up, and leaves 

 only the skin with the head and feet. But this is not 

 the case of all ; many species live peaceably and com- 

 fortably together. 



Yet even these are exposed to dangers of a more 

 terrible kind. The worms of several sorts of flies con- 

 tinually pny upon them ; some are upon, some under 

 the skin, and both eat up the poor defenceless animal 

 alive. 



It is surprising to see with what industry these little 



