28 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



species gradually, in others suddenly into a club or 

 knob at the extremity ; a peculiarity which, it will be 

 remembered, was pointed out at the commencement, as 

 a prominent mark of distinction between butterflies and 

 moths. 



Very graceful appendages are these waving antennce, 

 and evidently of high importance to their owner ; but 

 still, their exact office or function is unknown, notwith- 

 standing that many guesses and experiments have been 

 made with a view of settling that question. 



Investigators have perhaps erred, by assuming at the 

 outset that these antennae must be organs of some sense 

 that we ourselves possess ; whereas, I think that there 

 is much evidence to show that insects are gifted with a 

 certain subtle sense, for which we have no name, and 

 of which we can have as little real idea, as we could 

 have had of the faculty of sight, had all the world been 

 born blind. 



For example ; if you breed from the chrysalis a 

 female Kentish Glory Moth, and then immediately 

 take her in a closed box, mind out into her native 

 woods, within a short space of time an actual crowd of 

 male " Glories " come and fasten upon, or hover over, 

 the prison-house of the coveted maiden. Without this 

 magic attraction, you might walk in these same woods 

 for a whole day and not see a single specimen, the 

 Kentish Glory being generally reputed a very rare 

 moth ; while as many as some 120 males have been 

 thus decoyed to their capture in a few hours, by the 



