INSECT TRANSFORMATION. 61 



a sort of pleasure derived from the notes or other alluring 

 influence exercised by singing-birds, these Gnats, by nature 

 the prey of so many, are attracted to approach and hover 

 within reach of their syren enemies. 



" When the sun shines, let foolish Gnats make sport, 

 But creep in crannies when he hides his beams ;" 



now this is an allusion in which our Bard of Avon fails to 

 display his usual most accurate observation of natural objects. 

 Though courting the winter gleam, every body can tell that 

 Gnats by no means hide their heads with the summer sun, for 

 they seem to rejoice at his setting as much as at his rising, in 

 his absence as well as in his presence. In short at every hour, 

 as at every season, "Dansez toujours " seems their motto; up 

 and down, in and out and round about, in the morning, noon, 

 and evening of our day, as in the morning, noon, and evening 

 of their own existence. 



But stay ! here we are arrived at the end of our dance, nay, 

 at the end of our dancers' lives, without having said a word 

 about their beginning. Well, we have nothing for it but to 

 go backwards, jumping over the steps already made, up to the 

 premier pas, our aerial performer's birth and parentage. Even 

 this, though, will hardly do, since for the sake of the unin- 

 formed, it may be well to preface our memoir by a word or 

 two on the subject of Insect Transformation. Everybody, we 

 conclude, has a general notion concerning the passage of a 

 Butterfly through the successive stages of caterpillar, chrysalis, 



