WINGLETS AND POISERS. 48 



of shelter. Even now, if you examine closely between the wall 

 and the bearded ivy stems which embrace it, you may detect 

 behind them many a refugee of the revolutionary year, and 

 you may, perhaps, be rewarded for your trouble, by turning 

 out from the same shelter, in lieu of a sleepy Fly, a hybernating 

 Butterfly 



" Startling the eye 

 " With unexpected beauty." 



Once more to our picture. You know, we suppose, that the 

 Fly has a pair of wings, but a hundred to one, if one of you 

 out of a hundred has ever noticed that she has also a pair of 

 winglets (or little secondary wings), and a pair of poisers, 

 drum-stick like appendages between the main wings and the 

 body, employed for assisting and steadying her flight. These 

 poisers are much more conspicuous and easily observed with- 

 out a magnifier in the Gnat and in the Father Longlegs, insects 

 belonging to the same order as Flies. 



Did it ever occur to you to notice the prismatic painting of 

 a Fly's nervous pinion the iridescent colours wherewith its 

 glassy membrane seems overlaid ? If not, only look, we pray 

 you, in a proper light at the next of its kind you may chance 

 to meet with, and if, as is most likely, it comes to tell you 

 a pleasant tale of approaching spring time, we are verily sure 

 that you will see a hundred rainbows painted on its wing. 



