3:2 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
chaplets ; which, when excluded, are usually oval, and of a 
whitish colour : some, however, are quite round ; and others 
flatted, like a turnip. The covering or shell of the egg, 
thoiudi solid, is thin and transparent; and in proportion as 
•he caterpillar grows within the egg, the colours change, and 
are distributed differently. The butterfly seems very well in- 
structed by nature in its choice of the plant, or leaf, where it 
shall deposit its burden. Each egg contains but one cater- 
pillar ; audit is requisite that this little animal, whenexcluded 
should be near its peculiar provision. All the eggs of butter- 
flies are attached to the leaves of the favourite plant, by a 
sort of size or glue ; where they continue, unobserved, unless 
carefully sought after. The eggs are sometimes placed round 
the tender shoots of plants, in the form of bracelets, consist- 
ing of above two hundred in each, and generally surround- 
in')- the shoot like a ring upon a linger. Some butterflies 
secure their eggs from the injuries of air, by covering them 
with hair, plucked from their own bodies, as birds some- 
times seem to make their nests; so that their eggs are thus 
kept warm, and also entirely concealed. 
The maxim which has been often urged against man, that 
ne,of all other animals, is the only creature that is an enemy 
to its own kind, and that the human species only are found to 
destroy each other, has been adopted by persons who never 
considered the history of insects. Some of the caterpillar 
kind in particular, that seem fitted only to live upon leaves 
and plants, will, however, eat each other ; and the strongest 
will devour the weak, in preference to their vegetable food. 
That which lives upon the oak, is found to seize any of its 
companions, which it conveniently can, by the first rings, 
and inflict a deadly wound ; it then feasts in tranquillity on 
its prey, and leaves nothing of the animal but the husk. 
But it is not from each other they have most to fear, as in 
general they are inoffensive ; and many of this tribe are found 
to live in a kind of society. Many kind of flies lay their 
eo-o-s either upon, or within their bodies ; and as these turn 
into worms, the caterpillar is seen to nourish a set of intestine 
enemies within its body, that must shortly be its destruction. 
Nature having taught flies, as well as other animals, the 
surest method of perpetuating their kind. “ Towards the 
end of August,” says Reaumur, “ I perceived a little fly, 
a beautiful gold colour, busily employed in the body of n 
large caterpillar, of that kind which feeds upon cabbage- 
I o-ently separated that part of the leaf on which these insects 
were placed, from the rest of the plant, and placed it where 
I might observe them more at my ease. The fly, wholly 
