Lepidoptera Britannica;: sistens digestionem novam insectorum Lepidopterorum quę in Magna Britannia reperiuntur, ...

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Veneunt apud J. Murray, 1803 - Lepidoptera - 609 pages

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Page 18 - The sound must seem an echo to the sense : Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows, And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows ; But when loud surges lash the sounding shore, The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar : When Ajax strives some rock's vast- weight to throw, The line too labours, and the words move slow ; Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.
Page 111 - Which strike ev'n eyes incurious ; but each moss, Each shell, each crawling insect, holds a rank Important in the plan of Him who framed This scale of beings ; holds a rank which lost Would break the chain, and leave behind a gap Which Nature's self would rue.
Page 126 - All what we affirm or what deny, and call Our knowledge or opinion ; then retires Into her private cell when nature rests.
Page 126 - Now it is the time of night, That the graves, all gaping wide, Every one lets forth his sprite, In the church-way paths to glide.
Page xxiii - 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 sun-shine all their day.
Page xxiii - The full-formed brood, impatient of their cell. Start from their trance, and burst their silken shell, Trembling awhile they stand, and scarcely dare To launch at once upon the untried air. At length assured, they catch the favouring gale, And leave their sordid spoils and high in ether sail.
Page 16 - 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 68 - ... effectually secured by the reiterated evolutions of their strong and rapid wings. So fearless indeed have I beheld them become on these occasions, as to climb up and down the sides of the cage which contained the dear object of their eager pursuit; in exactly the same hurrying manner as Honey Bees which have lost themselves, climb up and down the glasses of a window.
Page 7 - ... with each other as much as possible; after which, they will frequently return again to the identical sprigs from whence they ascended. The wings of this fine species are of a stronger texture than those of any other in Britain, and more calculated for that gay and powerful flight which is so much admired by entomologists. The Purple Emperor commences his aerial movements from ten to twelve o'clock in the morning, but does not perform his loftiest flights till noon; decreasing them after this...
Page 18 - 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.

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