BUTTERFLIES 167 



speak of the painted bird. The butterfly, we imagine, 

 is thought to have "just growed " painted, as Topsy 

 falsely alleged was the fact concerning herself. He 

 is a bold man who will maintain that the beauty of 

 the butterfly is the result of infinite selection on the 

 part of the wooers and the wooed. On the other 

 hand, except in a few, though well-known, instances, 

 their gaudy colours cannot be attributed to natural 

 selection, because they are not founded on utility. 

 Natural selection has determined the shape and 

 colour of many remarkably inconspicuous caterpillars, 

 and has taught the butterfly to keep its bright 

 colours on one side of the wing, its neutral tints and 

 leaf-like markings on the other. But has it made 

 some butterflies bright blue, some yellow, some 

 coppery red, some white, others black, and many 

 brilliantly chequered? 



A caterpillar common on stinging-nettles just 

 now is an indistinct mottle of yellowish brown and 

 black, and is covered with make-believe prickles 

 almost as deterrent as the stings of its food-plant. In 

 a week it will throw off its prickly armour and be- 

 come a soft green, legless creature, no longer with 

 the constitution of a caterpillar, every particle and 

 atom, as well as every cell, in a state of flux resem- 

 bling annihilation. Then the material of the dis- 

 integrated caterpillar recrystallises into a radically 

 different being no grub, but a flying rainbow, every 

 grain of murky colour changed for a radiant jewel, 

 the soft trash of the skinned caterpillar moulded into 

 new and more wonderful hairs, armour, a coiled trunk 

 that is a marvel of construction, two great eyes, each 

 composed of thousands of facets. 



