208 THE BUTTERFLY VIVARIUM. 



his freshly-captured pets, for doubtless his sixteen 

 previous experiments had taught him to look for 

 something most highly curious and wonderful in 

 their eventual transformations. 



The reader may imagine the old naturalist in 

 daily and almost hourly watch upon one or more 

 such creatures as that represented at JSTos. 1 and 3, 

 Plate VI. ; at first much smaller, but, even in their 

 minutest stage, exhibiting extraordinary voracity, 

 and devouring all insects of smaller dimensions than 

 themselves as fast as they could be furnished to the 

 crystal reservoir, until they attained their full size, 

 which is represented in the illustration. To ob- 

 serve minutely their progress during that period re- 

 quired several months of careful watching ; at the 

 end of which time the naturalist, noticing that they 

 began to feed less voraciously, and then ceased to 

 take food altogether, no doubt came to the conclu- 

 sion, from previous " experiments," that a change 

 was about to take place. How curiously and 

 anxiously he would watch them climb, by any sup- 

 port within reach, clean out of the water, and cling 

 to the twig or other substance by means of which 

 they had quitted their native element, becoming 

 gradually motionless, and eventually hard and stiff, 

 appearing perfectly dead ! Indeed, had not the 



