SYMBOLS OF PSYCHE. 177 



some have changeable hues, like shot silk ; and several 

 are as transparent as glass, as the Hetaira esmeralda, 

 whose clear wings have but one spot of opaque colour, 

 of a violet and rose hue (see Fig. 29). 



The expanse of wing is not uncommonly six to eight 

 inches in the Ornithoptera, or Bird-wings, so-called ; 

 the largest, the most magnificent, the most perfect of 

 butterflies, the wonder of the Eastern tropics. To the 

 family Morphidse appertain the largest and most splendid 

 of the South American kinds. Their wings, often seven 

 inches across, are usually of a brilliant metallic blue, and 

 as the insect flies, the lustrous surface flashes in the sun- 

 light, so that it is visible a quarter of a mile off. Slowly 

 and majestically, the noble creatures sail through the 

 forest glades, only flapping their wings at considerable 

 intervals, or float at a good height, rarely descending 

 nearer the ground than twenty feet, rendering them an 

 almost unattainable prize in a forest country ; in the 

 mountainous districts of New Granada and Ecuador 

 they are captured with long nets, the collectors being 

 sometimes let down by ropes over the edges of the pre- 

 cipices. A notion of the immense variety of butterfly 

 life in the equatorial zone may be gained from the fact, 

 that no fewer than seven hundred species actually exist 

 within an hour's walk of Para in Brazil ; while in Britain 

 there are only sixty-six, and in the whole of Europe 

 three hundred and ninety species. 



