INTRODUCTION. 
79 
power of a creature unprovided with arms or legs, 
it seizes on a portion of the skin between two seg- 
ments, holding it as with a pair of pincers, and thus 
supports itself till it withdraw the tail from its 
sheath. It then elongates the rings of its tail as 
much as possible, and seizes a higher portion of the 
skin, repeating the same manoeuvre till the extremity 
touch the hillock of silk, to which it immediately ad- 
heres by means of a number of hooks with which it 
is provided for the purpose. “ These operations of 
withdrawing the tail from its case,” says Reaumur, 
to whom we have been chiefly indebted for the pre- 
ceding account, “ climbing up the skin, and finally 
attaching the extremity to the silken web, are very 
delicate and perilous manoeuvres. It is impossible 
not to wonder, that an insect which executes them 
but once in its life, should execute them so’well. 
We must necessarily conclude that it has been in- 
structed by a Great Master ; for he who has ren- 
dered it necessary for the insect to undergo this 
change, has likewise given it all the requisite means 
for accomplishing it in safety."* In order to get 
quit of the slough, which is still suspended by its 
side, the chrysalis curves its tail in such a manner as 
partly to embrace it, and then, by whirling rapidly 
round, sometimes not fewer than twenty times, and 
jerking suddenly against it, it generally succeeds in 
disengaging it from its fastenings, and throws it to 
the ground. 
Reaumur, vol. i. p. 423, 424. 
