6 
A NATURAL/ST ON THE PROWL. 
butterfly ears? No. Can it hear? Yes. If you doubt 
me, tread on withered leaves, or break a twig, as you are 
stalking a Junonia . Perhaps the delicate expanse of its 
thin wings is sensitive to the slightest concussions of the 
air. Perhaps. This I know, that it is far easier to approach 
a butterfly on a windy day than when the air is still. Can 
a butterfly smell ? On this point I feel pretty confident, for 
the flowers they love most are small and inconspicuous. 
Gaudy convolvuli and gorgeous bellflowers of all sorts 
address themselves to the gross bumble-bee. But may not 
a butterfly have other means of knowing than by seeing or 
smelling ? Aye, there’s the rub. For what a priori reason 
is there that the phenomena of this world should reach the 
brain of a butterfly only through the five gates of Mansoul? 
And if there are other means of access, how can we even 
conceive them ? What are the antennae of a butterfly ? 
“ Feelers ” they are called in English, but to overawe the 
unlearned, we men of science write of them as antennae, 
which means the yards of a ship. Under either term 
we know as much about them as the butterfly knows why 
I carry a walking-stick. 
Believe me, we are abysmally ignorant. But there is 
consolation ; for when facts do not obstruct, imagination 
