63 



mother-bird had eggs or young ones, but whether, in the former case, she had laid a part 

 only or the whole of her complement of eggs. 



That peculiarities in the flight of insects, too, have arrested the eye of the ordinary 

 observer may be gathered from the common names given to different species, such as the 

 Hawk moth, the Humming-bird moth, the Owlet moth, the Yapourer, etc. But the 

 scientist regards nature with a keener eye than does the ordinary observer ; and what 

 American entomologist does not recognize at a glance the dash of Clisiocampa Americana, 

 or the loose-jointed shambling flight of Ctenucha Lat7-eilliana ? What naturalist does 

 not readily distinguish between the steady, shrill clarion of the mosquito and the fussy, 

 impertinent buzz of the cattle-fly (Stomoxys calcitrans) ? The late Reverend Chancellor 

 Bird, who was an accomplished entomologist, was one night heard groping for a match 

 by a friend, who enquired if anything were the matter. *'No," he said. Such a moth 

 (naming it) is in my room. T know it by its hum ; and I want it for my collection." 

 And, in all probability, many a sound we cannot hear, and many a motion we cannot see,, 

 and many a scent our organs of smell fail to distinguish, have their messages to num- 

 berless living things. 



First, a few words on the general form and build of insects. And, to illustrate the 

 subject, let us take that philosophical toy named after the smooth-sailing bird of prey, 

 the Kite. The school-boy, to secure the balance of his kite, attends to the weight and 

 the disposition of the wings and the tail, and to the proper adjustment of the martingale. 

 Now, take for example any species of the genus Papilio (such as Papilio turnus, fig. 32). 

 The weight of the body of the insect answers to the tension of the string upon the 

 martingale ; the backward stretch of the hind wings, with their appendages, answers to 

 the tail in the kite ; and the adjustability of the wings secures evenness of flight. A 

 number of insects have, more or less, the form of the Fapilionidce. Amongst them are 

 the showy Canadian moth, Attacus luna (fig. 33), and the Brazilian, Eudemonia Streckeri. 



Another remarkable form of insects may be called the Bat-like. Attacus cecropia 

 (fig. 34) is an example of this ; and so closely do the motions of the moth resemble those 



Fig. 32. 



of the Vespertilio that, in the dusk of the evening, it requires the eye of a naturalist to 

 distinguish between them. Many of our butterflies have more or less of this form. 



A third is the Bird-like. In this, when the wings are expanded, the body projects 

 beyond the lines of the wings. In some cases the abdomen is furnished with tufts, which 

 serve, in a measure, the purposes of the tail in birds. For examples see Amphion nessus 

 and Sesia pelasgus. To maintain the balance of insects of this" form nature has many 

 expedients. In the Diptera the absence of fche under- wings, which, in other caseSj^ 



