OF BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS, 
311 
the use of these instruments may be, which are thus formed 
witli so much art, and by a workman who does nothing with- 
out reason, is as yet unknown to man. They may serve to 
guard the eye; they may be of use to clean it; or they may 
be the organ of some sense of which we are ignorant ; but 
tins is only explaining one difficulty by another. 
We are not so ignorant of the uses of the trunk, which 
few insects of the butterfly kind are without. This instru- 
ment is placed exactly between the eyes; and when the ani- 
inal is not employed in seeking its nourishment, it is rolled 
up like a curl. A butterliy, when it is feeding, flies round 
some flower, and settles upon it. The trunk is then uncurled, 
and thrust out either wholly or in part ; and is employed 
in searching the flower to its very bottom, let it be ever so 
deep. This search being repeated seven or eight times, the 
butterfly then passes to another; and continues to hover 
over those agreeable to its taste, like a bird over its prey. 
1 his trunk consists of two equal hollow tubes, nicely joined 
to each other, like the pipes of an organ. 
This tribe of insects has been divided into Diurnal and 
A'octurnal flies ; or, more properly speaking, into butler flies 
a »d moths; the one only flying by day, the other most 
Usually on the wing in the night. They may be easilv dis- 
tinguished from each other, by their horns or feelers; those 
°f the butterfly being clubbed or knobbed at the end ; those 
pi the moth, tapering finer and finer to a point. To express 
•t technically — the feelers of butterflies are clavated ; those 
of moths, are filiform. 
The butterflies, as well as the moths, employ the shorn 
me assigned them in a variety of enjoyments. Their whole 
i'me is spent either in quest of food, which every flower 
oilers ; or in pursuit of the female, whose approach they 
c mt often perceive at above two miles distance. Their sa- 
gacity in this particular is not less astonishing than true; 
out by what sense they are thus capable of distinguishing 
e ach other at such distances is not easy to conceive. It 
c annot be by the sight, since such small objects as they are 
n >ust be utterly imperceptible, at half the distance at which 
they perceive each other: it can scarcely be the sense of 
s melling, since the animal appears to have no organs for 
'oat purpose. 
The general rule among insects is, that the female is larger 
han the male ; and this obtains particularly in the tribe we 
a . re describing. The body of the male is smaller and slen- 
derer; that of the female, more thick and oval. The eggs of 
-he female butterflies are disposed in the body like a bed of 
