SYMBOLS OF PSYCHE. 181 



really departed ere returning to their interrupted business. 

 Doubtless they object to the addition of a guest at their 

 feast whose appetite in comparison with theirs would be 

 enormous. " Every one for himself" seems to be Nature's 

 law : " finding 's keeping ; " and " union is strength." 



Peculiarities of Highest Interest. 



Closely allied to the Ornithoptera, or Bird-wings, is a 

 group smaller in size, but equally brilliant in colour, the 

 Papilios, one of the handsomest exotic species of which, 

 the Malayan Papilio memnon, with black and blue wings, 

 five inches in expanse, and with the hind pair rounded 

 and gracefully scalloped, presents a peculiarity of highest 

 interest the remarkable variety in the form of the 

 females. They may be divided into two groups those 

 which resemble the males in shape, though varying 

 much, as butterflies often do, in colour. The second 

 group is most extraordinary, and would never be supposed 

 to be the same insect, since they differ entirely in colour 

 and in the outline of the wings, the hind wings being 

 elaborated into spoon-shaped tails, no trace of which is 

 ever observed in the males, or in the ordinary form of 

 the females. In shape and colouring these odd females, 

 when flying, closely resemble another butterfly belonging 

 to a different section of the same genus, Papilio coon a 



