54 METAMORPHOSES OF MAN 



almost out of sight ; but this is evidently a ruse. As 

 soon as the female unfolds her wings and exhibits her 

 entire form, he returns quickly enough, but to no pur- 

 pose; for she folds her wings together on his approach, 

 and then the flirtations, pursuits, refusals, and pre- 

 tended departures commence again. 



These performances sometimes last for more than 

 half an hour, no inconsiderable portion of a butterfly \s 

 lifetime. When they have ended, the female deposits 

 its eggs, several hundred in number, upon some por- 

 tion of a cabbage-leaf. The eggs are like little pyra- 

 mids, three or four times as high as wide, and grooved 

 by deep channels, which separate the rounded, undu- 

 lating sides from each other. The Pieris arranges 

 its eggs in a most artistic manner, side by side, and, 

 having glued them firmly to the leaf, leaves them 

 entirely to their fate. By far the greater number of 

 them perish, but still some are hatched, and thus 

 insure the perpetuation of the species. 



Every one knows that there springs from each of 

 these eggs a worm-like animal called a caterpillar, 

 which must pass into the intermediate condition of 

 chrysalis before it will become a perfect butterfly. 

 We shall now pursue this series of modifications, 

 beginning with the external ones. 



The egg which our Pieris lays is much smaller than 

 a millet-seed, and the caterpillar which emerges from 

 it, is proportionally diminutive. When fully formed, 

 however, it measures four centimetres in length, and 

 about five millimetres in width, and four in depth. 

 We see what a great difference there is in size be- 

 tween the animal when it emerges from the egg, and 

 when it is fully formed, and how rapidly the increase 



