MARCH. 63 



operations/' says Reaumur, "are most delicate and perilous : 

 it is wonderful that an insect which executes them but once 

 in its life, should execute them so well ; we can only con- 

 clude that it has been instructed by a Great Master/' 



When the chrysalis is to be suspended horizontally, the 

 animal commences as before, and also prepares a silken band 

 for encircling itself near the middle. Different methods are 

 used for fixing this belt : some caterpillars let it hang down 

 in a loop, and then insinuate their bodies into it when it is 

 completed ; others bend their heads back to the point where 

 the girdle is to be fixed, and, after fastening the threads on 

 that side, carry them over to the other, simply by turning 

 the head in that direction. 



The chrysalides of Butterflies are generally of an angular 

 form ; those of Moths oval or elliptical, and very rarely sus- 

 pended : the colour of both is usually deep chestnut-brown, 

 though occasionally of brighter hues. Those of Moths are 

 either enveloped in a silken cocoon, an example of which all 

 have seen in the Silk- worm, or buried in the ground, in a 

 hole well lined with silk to render it soft and warm, or 

 coated with a kind of varnish. The majority of Moths have 

 to force their way out of the cocoon no easy operation for 

 creatures destitute of jaws ; sometimes the perfect insect is 



