Insect Colouring 



daubs its garments with similar products. 

 From the reptile to the bird is no great 

 distance. Then the Wood-pigeon's iride- 

 scent hues, the eyes on the Peacock's tail, 

 the Kingfisher's sea-blue, the Flamingo's car- 

 mine are more or less closely connected with 

 the urinary excretions? Why not? Na- 

 ture, that sublime economist, delights in these 

 vast antitheses which upset all our concep- 

 tions of the values of things. Of a pinch 

 of common charcoal she makes a diamond ; of 

 the same clay which the potter fashions into 

 a bowl for the Cat's supper she makes a 

 ruby; of the filthy waste products of the or- 

 ganism she makes the splendours of the in- 

 sect and the bird. The metallic marvels of 

 the Buprestis and the Ground-beetle ; the ame- 

 thyst, ruby, sapphire, emerald and topaz of 

 the Humming-Bird; glories which would ex- 

 haust the language of the lapidary jeweller: 

 what are they in reality? Answer: a drop 

 of urine. 



293 



