164 
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS. 
through ; gradually extending the aLit forwards, till 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 
knob of silk ; this being done, tho old skin was jerked off 
by the writhing of the body. The silken cord was now 
round the body, between tho 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 tho case of which we are speaking, the transition to 
the Chrysalis state occurred near the end of August, and 
