114 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



for his capture ; sometimes a matter of the easiest ac- 

 complishment, sometimes just as hopelessly impossible, 

 according to his majesty's humour of the moment. 



Cowardice is not one of his attributes, and if he has 

 formed a preference for any especial spot, he will risk 

 loss of liberty and life rather than forsake it. 



The old mode of capturing this prize was by a ring 

 net fixed at the end of a pole some twenty or thirty 

 feet long, and so sweeping him off as he sat on his 

 leafy throne, or in one of his evolutions when he 

 quitted his seat for a turn in the air. 



This method still is practised, and succeeds occa- 

 sionally, but the weapon is an unwieldy one, both in 

 use, and for carriage to the place of action ; and science 

 has now placed in our power another plan, by means of 

 which I believe that by far the greater number of 

 recent captures have been made. 



The plan alluded to, is to take advantage of the 

 creature's royal taste for game for in that light I take 

 his predilection for decomposing animal matter, now a 

 matter of notoriety ; and so potent is the attraction of 

 the haut-gout for the royal palate, that if any animal, 

 or part of one, not too recently slaughtered, be sus- 

 pended near the known haunts of the insect, ten to one 

 but its savour will bring him down to earth to taste the 

 luxurious morsel, and so engrossed does he become when 

 thus engaged, that he may be swept off by the net 

 without difficulty. In the space of two or three days 

 large numbers of Emperors have been caught by means 



