300 NATURALIST'S CABINET*. 



Construction of the wings Feelers. 



own substance, transparent, but owe their opa- 

 city to the beautiful dust with which they are 

 covered. The \ving of the butterfly being ob- 

 served with a good microscope, will be seen to 

 be studded over with a variety of little grain, of 

 different forms and dimensions generally sup- 

 ported upon a footstalk regularly laid upon, the 

 whole surface. The wing itself is composed of 

 several membranes, which render the construc- 

 tion very strong, though light; and though it be 

 covered over with thousands of those scales, or 

 Studs, yet its weight is very little increased by 

 the number, and the animal is enabled to support 

 itself for a considerable time in the air. 



Butterflies, as well as most other flying insects, 

 have two instruments, like horns, on their heads, 

 called feelers. These are moveable at the base, 

 and have a number of joints, by which means the 

 insect is enabled to turn them in every direction. 

 Those of the butterfly are placed at the top of 

 the head, pretty near the external edge of each 

 eye. Of what benefit they are of to the animal 

 cannot be exactly ascertained, and all that has 

 hitherto been said is mere conjecture. Directly 

 between the eyes most of the butterfly kind have 

 a trunk, which, when the animal is not seeking 

 its nourishment, is rolled up like a curl; but 

 when in search of food, and the butterfly has set- 

 tled upon some flower, then the trunk is thrust 

 out and employed in searching the flower to the 

 very bottom, let it be ever so deep. This search 



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