The Butterflies of Great Britain, with Their Transformations, Delineated and Described

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W.S. Orr and Company, 1855 - Butterflies - 140 pages

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Page viii - Child of the sun ! pursue thy rapturous flight, Mingling with her thou lov'st in fields of light. And where the flowers of paradise unfold, Quaff fragrant nectar from their cups of gold : There shall thy wings, rich as an evening sky, Expand and shut with silent ecstasy. Yet, wert thou once a worm, — a thing that crept On the bare earth, then wrought a tomb, and slept. And such is man ! soon from his cell of clay To burst, a seraph, in the blaze of day.
Page xxiii - And the poor beetle that we tread upon, In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great As when a giant dies.
Page 51 - Antiopa, in particular, will not be seen by any one for eight, ten, or more years, and then appear as plentiful as before. To suppose they come from the continent is an idle conjecture ; because the English specimens are easily distinguished from all others, by the superior whiteness of their borders. Perhaps their eggs, in this climate, like the seeds of some vegetables, may, occasionally, lie dormant for several seasons, and not hatch until some extraordinary, but undiscovered, coincidence awake...
Page 110 - There is my friend the Weaver : strong desires Reign in his breast ; 'tis beauty he admires ; See ! to the shady grove he wings his way, And feels in hope the raptures of the day — Eager he looks ; and soon, to glad his eyes, From the sweet bower, by nature form'd, arise Bright troops of virgin moths and fresh-born butterflies ; Who broke that morning from their half-year's sleep, To fly o'er flowers where they were wont to creep.
Page xxii - Of every flowre and herbe there set in order: Now this, now that, he tasteth tenderly, Yet none of them he rudely doth disorder, Ne with his feete their silken leaves deface, But pastures on the pleasures of each place.
Page xxvi - Swallows follow the flies and gnats, and flies and gnats usually delight in warm strata of air; and as warm air is lighter, and usually moister than cold air, when the warm strata of air are high, there is less chance of moisture being thrown down from them by the mixture with cold air; but when the warm and moist air is close to the surface, it is almost certain that, as the cold air flows down into it, a deposition of water will take place.
Page xxvi - I have generally observed a coppery or yellow sunset to foretell rain ; but, as an indication of wet weather approaching, nothing is more certain than a halo round the moon, which is produced by the precipitated water; and the larger the circle, the nearer the clouds, and consequently the more ready to fall. HAL. — I have often observed, that the old proverb is correct — A rainbow in the morning is the shepherd's warning : A rainbow at night is the shepherd's delight.
Page 117 - Dover, Hythe, Hastings, Rye, Brighton, Worthing, Little Hampton, Chichester, Portsmouth, Isle of Wight, Dorsetshire, Somersetshire ; and throughout this range it is very similar : then, going upwards, I have met with it at Worcester, Birmingham, Shrewsbury ; and here an evident change has taken place, the band of rust-coloured spots has become less bright ; at Manchester these spots have left the upper wing almost entirely ; at Castle Eden Dean they are scarcely to be traced, and a black spot in...
Page 59 - The graceful elegance displayed by this charming species when sailing on the wing, is greater perhaps than can be found in any other we have in Britain.
Page 113 - When fully animated, it will not suffer any of its tribe to cross its path, or approach the flower on which it sits, with impunity ; even the large admiral (vanessa atalanta) at these times it will assail and drive away. There is another small butterfly (papilio...

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