164 



LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS. 



through ; gradually extending the slit forwards,ti\\ the head 

 was split and separated, and backwards for several rings. 

 The skin was then gradually pushed down : we had won- 

 dered how it would get through this part of the business, 

 for the weight of the Caterpillar pressed the silken girth 

 very tightly round the body ; but there seemed no real 

 difficulty ; the loose skin being worked backwards by the 

 motion of the segments. When it was pushed down to 

 the extremity, the tail of the Chrysalis was thrust out 

 underneath, and pressed upwards to take hold of the little 

 kuob of silk ; this being done, the old skin was jerked off 

 by the writhing of the body. The silken cord was now 

 round the body, between the sixth and seventh rings, and 

 the Chrysalis twisted and turned, till it got the girth 

 three rings nearer the head, about the middle of the wing- 

 cases ; the skin was so soft and the silk so slender, that' 

 it cut into the wing-cases, so far as to be invisible, but 

 no ill resulted from this circumstance to the perfect 

 Butterfly. 



The newly transformed Chrysalis is soft, with the skin 

 resembling in consistence wetted parchment ; its shape is 

 not very remote from that of the Caterpillar ; in the 

 course of an hour or two, however, it materially alters its 

 form. Some of its segments contract and condense, pro- 

 minent angles appear, the skin roughens and becomes 

 very rigid, and the creature has assumed the condition in 

 which it will pass a sort of torpid vegetative existence, 

 through some nine or ten months in the year, or even 

 more. 



In the case of which we are speaking, the transition to 

 the Chrysalis state occurred near the end of August, and 



