258 POPULAR ENTOMOLOGY. 



science in its perfection, namely, by forming a collection ; 

 but it is very evident that insects have not any of the sus- 

 ceptibility to pain that is found in the higher order of 

 animals, for they are frequently seen flying about with ap- 

 parently the usual sense of enjoyment, when they have been 

 deprived by accident of some of their due proportion 

 of legs or wings \ I myself once caught a Tiger-Moth on 

 the wing, which on examination was found to have lost 

 nearly the whole of the lower part of the body. The 

 Eev. Mr. Bird gives a curious instance of the bluntness 

 of sensation in insects ; he says, " When I was young in 

 Entomology I wished anxiously to find the quickest mode 

 of killing insects, and having captured a pretty beetle, I 

 took a pair of scissors and divided it at the junction of the 

 thorax and trunk ; the parts fell on a piece of white paper 

 which lay before me. Ear from being dead, I was grieved 

 and surprised to see the head and fore legs begin to run 

 about the paper ; it occasionally stumbled, but rose again, 

 and exhibited, if I may so speak, perfect self-possession; 

 it made for the edge of the paper, but arriving there, 

 and looking down, it seemed to think it too precipitous, 

 and so coasted along in search of an easier descent^ 

 which it did not seem able to find. This searching for a 



