232 UNDER THE OPEN SKY 



gether too hard on so ethereal a creature as 

 a butterfly. Painted as sombrely as this, 

 life would be too apt to be loveless. So, if 

 one side of her wings is colored for her ene- 

 mies, the other is painted to attract her 

 color-loving mate. While the under sur- 

 face looks gray and dull and lined like rot- 

 ting wood, the upper side is decorated with 

 a coating of rich satiny brown, and its 

 beauty is enhanced by a wide edge of warm 

 buff. 



BUTTERFLY COLORS 



It is wonderful how delicate and frail are 

 these butterfly colors. Most insects have 

 thoroughly transparent wings, and so are 

 those of the butterfly if we will but rub 

 them between our fingers. Then the color 

 shows itself as a powdery deposit. Exam- 

 ined closely, this powder proves to be made 

 up of exceedingly small scales, put on like 

 shingles. Each scale is hollow, and into 

 it the blood of the butterfly easily pene- 

 trates. This becomes cut off, and just as 

 our blood in a bruise goes through a series 



