160 PEACOCK BUTTERFLY. 



head downward. "Why some insects should be thus 

 suspended, while others lie horizontally, is not 

 known as yet. But there can be no doubt but 

 that some purpose is served by the various positions 

 and localities assumed by insects in their pupal state. 



Any one of a reflective mind, on hearing that a 

 chrysalis was to be suspended by its tail, would feel 

 some perplexity as to the means by which such a 

 position could be attained. For the old caterpillar's 

 skin has to be shed, and thus the legless, limbless 

 chrysalis is left without any apparent power to sus- 

 pend itself. The attitude which it assumes may be 

 seen on plate D, fig. 4 b. On examining the chry- 

 salis itself, and the leaf or twig to which it is sus- 

 pended, it will be seen that a little silken mound is 

 fastened to the leaf, and the chrysalis is furnished 

 with some hooked processes on its tail, which are 

 hitched upon the silken threads, and thus hold the 

 creature in the proper position. 



The Peacock Butterfly, plate H, fig. 8, is an insect 

 of very similar habits and manners. The under side 

 of the wings is very dark, and when they are closed 

 over the back, the butterfly looks more like a flat 

 piece of brown paper than an insect. The spots on 

 the upper surface of the wing are especially beautiful; 

 and the mode in which those spots are coloured by 

 their feathers is shown in plate L, fig. 4, where a 

 portion of the wing-spot is slightly magnified. This 

 figure shows also the manner in which the feather- 



