British Butterflies

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W.H. Lizars, 1860 - Butterflies - 247 pages

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Page 41 - 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!
Page 80 - Lo.! the bright train their radiant wings unfold, With silver fringed, and freckled o'er with gold. On the gay bosom of some fragrant flower, They, idly fluttering, live their little hour ; Their life all pleasure, and their task all play, All spring their age, and sunshine all their day.
Page 96 - And sport and flutter in the fields of air," is the sulphur butterfly (gonepteryx rhamni), which in the bright sunny mornings of March we so often see under the warm hedge, or by the side of some sheltered copse, undulating, and vibrating like the petal of a primrose in the breeze. The blossoms of many of our plants afford for the decoration of the fair a vast variety of...
Page 41 - 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...
Page 49 - ... covering to some foreign butterflies, the wings of which expand upwards of half a foot ; or certain species of Moths, some of which (such as the Atlas Moth of the east, or the Great Owl Moth of Brazil), sometimes measure nearly a foot across the wings ! A modern mosaic picture may contain 870 tesserulae, or separate pieces, in one square inch of surface; but the same extent of a butterfly's wing sometimes consists of no fewer than 100,736...
Page 95 - ... it is equally remarkable, that, amidst all the varied hues of spring, yellow is the most predominant in our wild and cultured plants. The primrose, cowslip, pilewort, globe-flower, buttercup, cherlock, crocus, all the cabbage tribe, the dandelions, appear in this dress. The very first butterfly, that will " aloft repair, And sport and flutter in the fields of air...
Page 77 - ... are sure to fasten themselves upon the silk the moment the tail is thrust amongst it. Our pupa has now nearly completed its labours ; it has withdrawn its tail from the slough, climbed up it, and suspended itself to the silken hillock — manoeuvres so delicate and perilous, that we cannot but admire that an insect which executes them but once in its life, should execute them so well : nor could it, as Reaumur has well and piously observed, had it not been instructed by a GREAT MASTER.
Page 77 - ... itself To effect this, instinct-guided, it seizes on a portion o: this shrivelled skin between two segments of its body holding it as with a pair of pincers, and thus, destitute of limbs, supports itself, till it withdraws the tail from the old useless skin which sheathed it; it then, still clinging, elongates the rings of its tail as much as possible, and seizes a higher portion of the skin, and in this manner, climbing...
Page 58 - Camilla, that, long after he was unable to pursue her, he used to go to the woods, and sit down on a style, for the sole purpose of feasting his eyes with her fascinating evolutions !" The hinder section of the body is the abdomen, which presents nothing peculiar in its form or structure.
Page 78 - Its course being finished, it casts off the earthy body, and goes into a hidden state of being in Hades, where it rests from its works, and is prepared for its final consummation. The time for this being arrived, it comes forth clothed with a glorious body, not like its former, though germinating from it, for though " it was sown an animal body, it shall be raised a spiritual body," endowed with augmented powers, faculties and privileges commensurate to its new and happy state.

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