LEPIDOPTEROUS INSECTS. 77 



tion ; and cautiously observes, " What the office of 

 these vessels is, and whether they may not be salivary 

 ducts, I cannot take upon me to determine."* That 

 naturalist, as well as Ramdohr, was inclined to 

 suppose these the silk reservoirs ; but that they were 

 not was proved by Ly onnet, who detected a conspicuous 

 pair of salivary ducts in the larva of the Goat Moth ;f 

 and in his investigations, he is borne out by the 

 dissections which were afterwards made by Heroldt, 

 in his minute and satisfactory anatomy of the Cabbage 

 Butterfly. 



Butterflies, in their mature state, have but little 

 fluid matter in them ; and, besides, being so much 

 exposed to the scorching rays of the sun, in which 

 they are continually sporting, are liable to great 

 thirst. They are often, therefore, to be seen in 

 the act of drinking by the sides of pools of water ; 

 particularly in the sultry autumnal months. Mr 

 Rennie says, " At Compton Basset, in Wiltshire, I 

 once counted about fifty of the small White Butterfly 

 (Pontia rapts, of Haworth,) all assembled within a 

 space of a few yards on the sludge which had just 

 been left by the water of a pond, partially dried up 

 by the sun. What was most remarkable, they seemed 

 to have quite lost the pugnacious disposition which 

 they were affirmed to display when they meet with 

 their congeners on the wing. At the pond, on the 

 contrary, all was harmony among these light winged 



* Book of Nature, part ii. p. 21. 

 f Traite Anatomique, p. 112. 



