The Natural History of British Butterflies: Illustrated by Thirty-six Plates; with Memoir and Portrait of Werner |
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Common terms and phrases
abundant anal angle antennæ apex appears band basal base beautiful BEDFORD BLUE black spots BLACK-VEINED WHITE blackish BLUE BUTTERFLY body border Britain British caterpillar chrysalis Chryseis Coloured Plates considerable counties of Scotland crescents curved curved band dark brown DARK GREEN FRITILLARY disk dots edge Edinburgh England feeds female frequently fringe Fritillary genus green hairs HIGH BROWN FRITILLARY hinder margin hinder pair hinder wings Hipparchia Hippothoë insect irregular kind larvæ latter legs Lepidoptera Lewin light likewise Linn.-Donovan Linn.—Lewin Lizars sc male marked Metra middle mineralogy NATURALIST'S LIBRARY nearly nervures occurs ocellated ocelli orange outer pale paler palpi patch placed Polyommatus Pontia portion Portrait and Memoir primary wings Purple Emperor resemblance round scarce Scotland secondary wings sexes species specimens streak surface Thecla tinged transverse triangular upper side upper wings usually Vanessa Werner white spot whitish yellow spots
Popular passages
Page 49 - 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.
Page 49 - 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 ! * At Woburn Abbey.
Page 92 - 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 103 - 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...
Page 2 - V. LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL, 24mo, Vignette after TURNER, Silk, Gilt Edges.
Page 197 - Amid the tribes of insects so particularly influenced by seasons, there are a few, which appear little affected by common events; the brown meadow butterfly (papilio janira), so well known to every one, I have never missed in any year; and in those damp and cheerless summers, when even the white cabbage butterfly is scarcely to be found, this creature may be seen in every transient gleam, drying its wings, and tripping from flower to flower with animation and life, nearly the sole possessor of the...
Page 57 - But how much inferior must this number be to that necessary to form a 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...
Page 42 - While this illustrious man was silently pursuing his useful career in Germany, other philosophers in this country, of high talent, boldly struck out general views, whic.h, though not remarkable for accuracy, entitled their authors to the character of genius and of fancy. Dr Hutton of Edinburgh took a decided lead in this matter ; and, had he studied nature, and then theorized, his genius would, in all probability, have illustrated many difficult points; but it is obvious, from his own works, that...
Page 86 - By this means the outer skin of the caterpillar, being separated, may be easily drawn off from the butterfly which is contained and folded up in it. This done, it is clearly and distinctly seen, that, within this skin of the caterpillar a perfect and real butterfly was hidden, and therefore the skin of the caterpillar must be considered only as an outer garment, containing in it parts belonging to the nature of a butterfly, which have grown under its defence by slow degrees, in like manner as other...