THE BUTTERFLY. 
139 
The Urania has wings of a velvet black, striped 
with emerald green, notched round the edge 
with a band of ruddy gold, and projecting into 
a long and slender tail. She seems to belong to 
an intermediate species, for her antennge have 
not the little clubs or knobs at the end, like the 
rest of the butterflies, but taper off to a point 
like those of a moth. 
A traveller in India tells us that he was very 
much delighted with the amazing number of 
splendid butterflies of the swallow-tail species. 
They were to be seen everywhere, sailing majes¬ 
tically through the still hot air, or fluttering from 
one scorching rock to another. But they seemed 
to like best of all the damp warm sand by the 
side of a stream. There they would settle and 
sit by thousands, with erect wings, and balancing 
themselves with a rocking motion, as their heavy 
sails inclined them to one side or the other. 
Altogether, they looked like a fleet of yachts at 
anchor, in a calm. 
Perhaps you do not know that there are some 
people in the world who eat butterflies ! 
Do you remember my telling you that in New 
South Wales, the natives took a great deal of 
trouble, and even climbed the trees to find 
caterpillars, and then cooked and ate them? It 
is in the same country that they use a little 
