SWALLOW-TAIL. 277 



in the "Swallow-tail" we meet with a remarkable deviation 

 from this usual form the hindmost pinions being prolonged, 

 as well as the foremost, into an acute tail. 



Commencing its nocturnal rambles before the usual con- 

 clusion of our evening walks, the delicate sulphur-coloured 

 pinions of this pretty insect often flit past us in the June and 

 July twilights; when, in accordance with a comparison 

 already suggested, we might fancy it an evening primrose on 

 the wing. 



The wing of the moth, as of the butterfly, generally owes 

 its beauty to the rich mosaic of minute scales or feathers by 

 which it is overlaid, entirely, as it would seem, by way of or- 

 nament ; for the creature can use its pinions when reduced to 

 transparent membranes, as well as other insects, or a few of its 

 own tribe in which they are naturally clear. Its progress 

 through the air is no more impeded by the rough handling of 

 wantonness or weather, than the flight of true genius by the 

 rough rubs of fortune, however they may strip its soaring 

 energies of the variegated trappings of worldly splendour. 



There exists, however, a singular and beautiful family of 

 moths, called the " Plumed," to which the above remark is 

 by no means applicable the wing feathers of this tribe being 

 as essential to flight, and serving as much to form its organ, 

 as those in the pinions of the feathered race. 



Who has not noticed, in gardens and by hedge-rows, floating 

 towards evening in the summer air, an object resembling a 

 large tuft of down, or a snow-flake dropped (a marvel !) from 

 a summer cloud ? When followed to its place of settlement 

 (usually some plant or lowly shrub), this questionable wanderer 

 will prove one of the moths just mentioned, that, probably, 

 designated the " Large White Plume;" 1 a little creature (large 

 only by comparison) with wings consisting each of a single 



1 Pterophorus pentadactylus. 



