284 HABITS OF INSECTS. 



But the variety of clothing with which insects 

 are decorated, is most admirable and curious ! 

 The upper and the under vcstiture of the wings, 

 their fringes, that which covers the body in different 

 parts, varies greatly ; the bird splendidly habited, 

 as he sometimes is, frequently will be found draped 

 with less variety of form and colour than the insect 

 which escapes our notice by his actions, and the 

 power of our eyes by the smallness of its parts. 

 Our lepidopterous creatures seem to be most charac- 

 teristically framed and constituted for the different 

 hours and places in which they delight to move ; so 

 much so, that I think if we were to invert the order 

 of their appearance, the singular unfitness of many 

 of them for their stations would be immediately 

 manifest to us. The butterfly, light, airy, joyous, 

 replete with life, sports in the sunshine, wantons on 

 the flower, and trips from bloom to bloom, gay as 

 the brilliant morn, and cheerful as the splendour of 

 heaven : heat and light appear to be the very prin- 

 ciple of his being ; in a cloudy or a chilly atmosphere 

 his energies become suspended, and, closing his 

 wings, reposes like a sickly thing upon some droop- 

 ing flower : but let the cloud disperse, the sun 

 break out, he springs again to active life; asso- 

 ciating with the birds of day, and denizen of the 

 same scenes, he only seems of a less elevated order. 

 But the moth, though possessing at times sufficient 

 activity for self-preservation, is less buoyant, less 

 sprightly on the wing, avoids the heat and light, 



