NON-PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENTS. 195 



peculiar movements, as well as those shared with other winged 

 creatures. The sportive dancing of gnats and Tipulidan flies, 

 the sailing of winged ants, the beautiful undulating suspen- 

 sion of the graceful Ephemerae, would appear to have no exact 

 correspondence amongst feathered fliers ; while of a character 

 no less sui generis are various wing exercises of a non-progres- 

 sive character performed by insects only. Of this latter de- 

 scription is the flirting by the butterfly of her painted fans, the 

 fanning of bees, and the quivering of his little transparent, 

 black- tipped pinions by the "vibrating fly,"* a tiny, scarlet- 

 headed, black-bodied lover of the sunshine and of flowers. 



The purposes of the above and resembling actions may still, 

 perhaps, admit of doubt, inasmuch as they have been assigned 

 by careful and intelligent observers to different exciting mo- 

 tives. By some, the butterfly has been supposed to flirt her 

 wings simply with the same cooling intent as that wherewith 

 a lady flirts her fan, while another considers that the "Vanessa," 

 when she fans the air with her pinions, is inviting its entrance 

 into their tubes and nervures, as a preparative for flight ; and 

 while, by one, the quiverings of the vibrating fly are supposed 

 to assist its respiration, another, from having noticed these 

 same vibrations to be performed only in the sunshine, regards 

 them as expressions merely of delight. 



How can we so often permit our minds to stagnate for want 

 of exercise, when even in an insect movement, and the springs 



* Sci&ptera mlrans, Kirby. See Vignette. 



