Beautiful Butterflies. 



WHAT IS A BUTTERFLY ? 



" Who can follow Nature's pencil here ? 

 Their wings with azure green and purple glossed, 

 Studded with coloured eyes, with gems embossed ; 

 Inlaid with pearl, and marked with various stains 

 Of lively crimson through their dusky veins." 



Mes. Baebauld. 



|HAT is a Butterfly? — An insect. True; and 

 the name we are told is a literal translation 

 of the old Saxon word Buttor-Jleoze, applied 

 to those silken-winged flies, because they usually be- 

 come plentiful in the butter season. I have next to 

 ask you what you understand by an Insect ? — A little 



crawling, or flying thing, with Nay, that will not 



do at all. Let us find out Johnson's definition of the 

 word. Ah, here it is, in Latin Insectum, that which is 

 cut — " Insects may be considered together as one great 

 tribe of animals : they are called Insects from a separa- 

 tion in the middle of their bodies, whereby they are 

 cut into two parts, which are joined together by a small 

 ligature, as we see in wasps and common flies." You 

 have no doubt noticed this remarkable peculiarity of 

 the Insects here named ; it is especially conspicuous in 

 the wasp, the lower part of whose yellow body looks as 



