258 POPULAR ENTOMOLOGY. 



science in its perfection, namely,, by forming a collection ; 

 but it is very evident that insects have not any of the sus- 

 ceptibility to pain that is found in the higher order of 

 animals, for they are frequently seen flying about with ap- 

 parently the usual sense of enjoyment, when they have been 

 deprived by accident of some of their due proportion 

 of legs or wings ; I myself once caught a Tiger-Moth on 

 the wing, which on examination was found to have lost 

 nearly the whole of the lower part of the body. The 

 Rev. Mr. Bird gives a curious instance of the bluntness 

 of sensation in insects ; he says, '' When I was young in 

 Entomology I wished anxiously to find the quickest mode 

 of killing insects, and having captured a pretty beetle, I 

 took a pair of scissors and divided it at the junction of the 

 thorax and trunk ; the parts fell on a piece of white paper 

 which lay before me. Par from being dead, I was grieved 

 and surprised to see the head and fore legs begin to run 

 about the paper ; it occasionally stumbled, but rose again, 

 and exhibited, if I may so speak, perfect self-possession; 

 it made for the edge of the paper, but arriving there, 

 and looking down, it seemed to think it too precipitous, 

 and so coasted along in search of an easier descent, 

 which it did not seem able to find. This searching for a 



