With this instrument, which in its shape
and structure is peculiar to this bird, it easily disengages the limpets
from the rocks, and plucks out the oysters from their half-opened
shells, on which it feeds, as well as on other shell-fish, sea-worms,
and insects.
W.G.C.
* * * * *
BUTTERFLIES.
The splendid appearance of the plumage of tropical birds is not superior
to what the curious observer may discover in a variety of Lepidoptera;
and those many-coloured eyes, which deck so gorgeously the peacock's
tail, are imitated with success in Vanessa Io, one of our most common
butterflies. "See," exclaims the illustrious Linnaeus, "the large,
elegant, painted wings of the butterfly, four in number, covered with
small imbricated scales; with these it sustains itself in the air the
whole day, rivalling the flight of birds, and the brilliancy of the
peacock. Consider this insect through the wonderful progress of its
life, how different is the first period of its being from the second,
and both from the parent insect. Its changes are an inexplicable enigma
to us: we see a green caterpillar, furnished with sixteen feet,
creeping, hairy, and feeding upon the leaves of a plant; this is changed
into chrysalis, smooth, of a golden lustre, hanging suspended to a fixed
point, without feet, and subsisting without food; this insect again
undergoes another transformation, acquires wings and six feet, and
becomes a variegated white butterfly, living by suction upon the honey
of plants.
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