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BUTTERFLY PLUMAGE. 



Several tribes of our native Butterflies are distinguished and 

 classed according to their prevailing colours. Our fulgid 

 Coppers, 1 and Fritillaries 2 with silver-spotted wings, look 

 allied by their metallic lustre with the metallic productions of 

 earth. Our Blues 3 imitate the azure tints of the sky, while 

 others which display shades of light, progressively warming 

 from white to orange, have been considered not unaptly as 

 "sacred to the day/' Those concentric circles of colour, called 

 ocelli or eyes, which give, in some instances, such an accession 

 of life and brilliancy to the wings of Butterflies and Moths, 

 may be looked on as stars of distinction belonging to their order 

 ^Lepidoptera)j conferred solely on one other of the insect race, 4 

 and eclipsed only by the magnitude and profusion of those 

 which are lavished on the strutting peacock. 



1 Lycacna. 2 Melitcea. 3 Polyommatus. 4 The Orthoptera. 



lier fiaut'i of 



