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they only slit each side about the middle of it. Reason 

 itself could not exceed this. Their dress is always of 

 the colour of the stuff from whence it was taken if, 

 therefore, a moth, whose clothing is blue, passes over a 

 red piece of cloth, the widths will be red ; she will make 

 herself a harlequin's habit, if she passes over cloths 

 or stufTs of several colours. They live on the same 

 hairs they clothe themselves with. It is remarkable, 

 that they are able to digest them ; and it is still more 

 extraordinary, that the colours do not suffer the least 

 alteration by digestion, and that their excrements are 

 always of as fine a tincture as the cloths they feed on. 

 Painters may collate from our moths powders of all co- 

 lours, and all kinds of shades of the same colour. They 

 make little jouruies: those that settle incases, do not 

 love to walk on long hairs, but cut all they meet with 

 in their way, and are always provided with a scythe as 

 they march. They rest themselves from time to time, 

 when they fix this case with small cords, and thus cause 

 it, as it were, to ride at anchor : they fasten it more 

 firmly, when they are disposed to metamorphose them- 

 selves. They close up entirely both ends of it, in order 

 to clothe in it the form of the ^chrysalis, and afterwards 

 that of the butterfly. 



1 1. Field moths greatly exceed the domestic moths in 

 point of industry. They take the substance of their clo- 

 thing from the leaves of plants ; but it becomes neces- 

 sary for them to prepare this matter, and give it that 

 lightness and flexibility proper for the garments. These 

 moths are of the species of miners 5 and they insinuate 

 themselves betwixt the two membranes of a leaf, which 

 are to them what a piece of cloth is to a taylor $ with 

 this difference, that the latter has occasion for a pattern, 

 which the moths can dispense with. They remove from 

 these membranes all the pulpy substance that adheres 

 to them, which membranes they make thin, and polish. 

 They afterwards cut in them, thus prepared, two pieces, 

 which are nearly equal, and like each other ; they la- 

 bour to give them the hollowness, windings, and pro- 



4 



