CHAPTER VIII. 



OP THE GREAT WHITE BUTTERFLY AND OTHER 

 BUTTERFLIES REPRESENTED IN PLATE III. 



r ORDSWORTH, among his inti- 

 r mate sympathies with the wild 

 $ ' beauties of simple Nature, has not 

 forgotten tlie Butterfly. He has 

 ^- called it the historian of infancy, 

 pfcC because the sight of one of those elegant 

 m\ creatures, with wings pale white as a 

 ] j J summer snow-flake, or gorgeously illuini- 

 I nated like the glowing page of a painted 

 missal, never failed to recall to him the joyous time 

 of childhood, when the first sight of a Butterfly 

 makes an impression on the imagination which is 

 never forgotten. 



The Butterfly is, par excellence, the insect of 

 flowers. It feeds on the sweet juices of their nec- 

 taries ; revels in their delicate perfumes ; and seems, 

 as it flutters towards them, almost like another 

 flower, so petal-like are its delicately thin and flaky 



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