selves beneath the centre of these, each having his own little canopy. By this means they are not only hidden from the sight of birds, but in a great measure defended from the injury, which they might otherwise sustain from windy and boisterous weather. They feed on the Devil's-bit Scabious, (Scabiosa succisa,) and on various kinds of the marsh grasses; eating only the opening leaves as they come up. Hence it is some

times difficult to find them. Their time of feeding is only while the sun shines; for if, whilst in the very act, the sun becomes hidden by a cloud, they immediately cease; but, on the return of the sun-beams, they recommence their operations.

If any person wish to observe the operations and change of these caterpillars, at his own home, he has nothing more to do, than to cut a turf from the place where they are found, and they will feed as readily in confinement as they did in the fields.

THE NETTLE TORTOISE-SHELL BUTTERFLY*.

These Butterflies make their earliest appearance, in a winged state, about the month of April. They are short-lived, laying their eggs in the beginning of the following month, on the uppermost stalks of nettles, and dying very shortly afterwards.

The eggs adhere by means of the glutinous mois

* DESCRIPTION. The upper wings of this well-known insect, one of the most beautiful and most common of the British Butterflies, are red, and marked with alternate bands of black and pale orange; below these are three black spots, the inner one of which is square; and near the extremity of the upper parts is a white stripe. The lower wings also are red, marked with a large black patch at the base. The margins of all of them are black, with blue spots. SYNONYMS. Papilio Urtica. Lewin.-Tortoise-shell Fly.

Linn.-Nettle Tortoise-shell. Harris-Small Tortoise-shell.

ture, with which they are covered when first protruded. About the middle of the month, the young caterpillars may be seen of a light green colour, on the nettle-tops, enclosed in a web that covers the whole upper part of the plant; and in this they all herd together. They soon cast their first skin, when they always remove to a fresh place, leaving their old coverings hanging to the web. Here, at a little distance from their former habitation, they form a new colony. In their third skin they make another remove, but still keep together in a web. On changing this they also change their colour, and become black; and as they have now increased too much in size to live in one society, they separate into companies. In their sixth or last skin, they entirely separate; and in this state they often make such ravages among the nettles, as to leave nothing but the stalks and fibres. Sometimes they are seen so numerous, as to cover all the tops, and six or seven inches of the stalks, giving them the appearance of being enveloped in a black cloth.

About the beginning of June they attain their full growth; when, fastening their tails by a web under the nettle-leaves, or to the stalks, they change into chrysalids. These are at first green, but in a day or two they change to a bright gold, or to a green brown colour. They remain thus for about twenty days, when they become Butterflies. Some few of this second brood live through the winter, being frequently found during that season in a state nearly torpid.

These insects, soon after their enlargement from the chrysalid state, discharge a few drops of reddish fluid, which, in places where they have been in great numbers, have had the appearance of a shower of blood, and been recorded by writers as the forerunner of some extraordinary event. The first discovery of this circumstance, that has been recorded, is related by M. de Reaumur. He says, that in the beginning of July, 1608, the people of the town of Aix were in the utmost alarm, from what they thought a shower of blood, that

had just fallen in the suburbs, and for some miles round the place. M. de Peiresc, a philosopher, who, among other kinds of knowledge, had not neglected that of the operations and economy of insects, was consulted on the subject. He found the walls of a churchyard near the place, and the walls of several small villages in the neighbourhood, to be spotted with large drops of a blood-coloured liquid. A little time before this, he had happened to pick up a large and beautiful chrysalis, which he had carefully laid in a box. Immediately after its transformation into the butterfly state, he remarked that it had left a large of drop of bloodcoloured liquor on the bottom of the box. The red stains on the walls, on stones near the highways, and in the fields, were found to be perfectly similar to that left on the bottom of the box. M. de Peiresc now no longer hesitated to pronounce, that all those blood-coloured stains, wherever they appeared, proceeded from the same cause. The prodigious number of butterflies, which he, at the same time, saw flying in the air, confirmed his original idea. He likewise observed that the drops of the miraculous rain were never found in the middle of the town; that they appeared only in places bordering upon the country; and that they never fell upon the tops of houses, or upon walls more elevated than the height to which butterflies generally rise. What M. de Peiresc himself saw, he showed to many persons of knowledge or of curiosity, and established, as an incontestable fact, that the pretended drops of blood were in reality but drops of a red liquid deposited there by butterflies. It is also deserving of remark, that all the showers of blood, that have been recorded to have happened, took place in the warm seasons of the year, when the butterflies are most

numerous.

OF THE SPHINGES OR HAWKMOTHS*.

The bodies of these insects are usually thick and heavy, and their wings long and admirably calculated for rapid flight. Some of them are among the largest of the Lepidopterous Insects. They fly, for the most part, early in the morning, and late in the evening. They hover over flowers, and, without settling upon them, suck out the nectarious juices by means of their long and spiral tongue.

Their caterpillars are large, smooth, and without hairs, and furnished with a single erect horn near their posterior extremity. The greater number of the species change into chrysalids under the surface of the ground.

THE DEATH'S HEAD HAWKMOTH †.

The name of this Moth has been obtained from its having upon the thorax somewhat the appearance of a human skull. It is the largest of all the British species, the wings of the females measuring sometimes more than five inches in extent.

When taken into the hand, this Moth makes a singular kind of noise, by striking its palpi against the tongue. This, by some persons, has been compared to the plaintive squeaking of a mouse.

The Death's-head Hawkmoths generally make their

* The antennæ of these insects are of a somewhat prismatic shape, tapering at each end. The tongue, in most of the species, is exserted. There are two feelers. The wings are in general deflected.

+ DESCRIPTION. The wings are entire; the lower ones yellowish, with two brown bands. The abdomen is yellowish, with black belts; and on the thorax there is a mark, bearing a fanciful resemblance to a human skull.

SYNONYMS. Sphinx atropos. Linn.-Le Sphinx tête de Mort. Tigny.

first appearance about the end of September, or the beginning of October: they fly abroad only in the evening, and again at break of day. During one year, in which the inhabitants of Bretagne suffered dreadfully from an epidemic disease, moths of this description were observed in immense numbers. The people, terrified by the singular appearance of their thorax, immediately attributed their sufferings to the visitation of these insects. And the plaintive cry of the insects when taken up, tended greatly to confirm this error.

These Moths generally deposit their eggs on the potatoe-plants. The caterpillars, when full grown, are of immense size, sometimes more than three inches in length, and of the thickness of a man's finger; yet they are seldom to be observed, from their either returning under the ground, or artfully concealing themselves beneath the leaves in the day-time, and coming abroad only in the evenings to feed.

Several persons have attempted to feed the caterpillars, for the purpose of obtaining specimens of the insect in its perfect state. But although they have diligently attended to them, and the insects have completed their transformation into chrysalids, I have not yet heard of any one, who was able to rear them up to the winged state. I have myself made numerous attempts, but have invariably failed. "Perhaps," says Mr. Haworth, "in a state of nature, they may perform their metamorphoses deeper in the ground, and consequently, in a more moist and equal temperature, than that required by most other Lepidopterous Insects; and if so, the cause of their perishing in our-breeding-cages,. is owing to their having, in those cages, too scanty and. too dry a soil."