240 NATURE STUDIES. 



catch rare insects by enclosing one of their mates in 

 a box, when the quick-scented and eager lovers soon, 

 sail up from leeward, evidently attracted by the dis- 

 tinguishing odour borne upon the breeze. Nay, 

 some butterflies have special scent-glands among the 

 feathery scales on their wings, to make them more 

 charming to their pretty spouses, just as so many of 

 the higher animals have a peculiar musky perfume. 

 I may mention that Mr. Darwin similarly sets down 

 the brilliant colours and ornamental spots of butter- 

 flies, as well as the curious horns and excrescences of 

 many beetles, to the long selective action of their fair 

 lady-loves, who always choose the handsomest and 

 strongest among their numerous rival suitors. It is 

 to this same cause that we probably owe the bright 

 iridescent hues and bossy headpiece of the little 

 creature who has now just escaped from my hand by 

 clumsily transferring himself to yonder tall blade of 

 rank meadow-grass. 



Thus, as far as his outward picture of the world 

 goes, the beetle's ideas must really be very similar to 

 our own. The universe of sights, sounds, smells, 

 tastes, and touches through which he moves must 

 present the same general effect as that which we 

 ourselves experience in our intercourse with outer 

 things. But when we come to consider the relations 

 which the beetle establishes between these primordial 

 sense-impressions, the little ideas and emotions which 

 he elaborates out of them, we find signs that the 

 difference is vast indeed. Though the material is the 



