INTRODUCTION. 55 



dull and dark as the supine is brilliant, so that one 

 can conceive this animal to appear like a planet in 

 full radiance, and under eclipse, as its wings open 

 and shut in the blaze of a tropical sun. Another 

 butterfly ( Papilio Ulysses), by its radiating ceru- 

 lean disk, surrounded on every side by a margin in- 

 tensely black, gives the idea of light first emerging 

 (from primeval obscurity : it was probably this idea 

 of light shining in darkness, that induced Linne to 

 give it the name of the wisest of the Greeks in a 

 dark and barbarous age.* I know no insect upon 

 which the sight rests with such untired pleasure as 

 upon the lovely butterfly that bears the name of the 

 unhappy Trojan king (P. Priamus) ; the contrast 

 of the rich green and black of the velvet of its wings 

 with each other, and with the orange of its abdomen, 

 is beyond expression regal and magnificent." * 



Although our British butterflies can in no way 

 compete with the magnificent examples just referred 

 to, we yet possess many of great beauty, whether 

 as regards the brilliancy of their colour, or the har- 

 monious manner in which these colours are distri- 

 buted. The bluish-purple reflection that plays on 

 the wings of the Emperor of the Woods, has a rich- 

 ness and brilliancy of tint, which is not often sur- 

 passed. The prevailing hue among the Lyccence, is 

 fulgid copper colour, of a high degree of resplenden- 

 cy ; and the Polyommati, which are so abundant in 

 our pastures, are remarkable for exhibiting, in great 

 variety of shade, the most delicate and beautiful tints 

 * Jntroduction to Entomology, iii. p. 651. 



