S-1141001_COMPLETO.pdf

68 PEACOCK.
the other, which latter forms the inside of a large patch, angu­
lar on its inner side, and rounded on its outer one, which is,
as it were, partially eclipsed by a large eye, whose ground
colour is yellowish buff, and within whose orbit are marks of
black and purple red, with a border of blue spots, and three
pale blue specks, followed by two others outside it. It is much
in the form of the handle of "Charles's Wain," the always
well-known constellation that guides the traveller by shewing
him unerringly the north, a beacon which, as the church-spire
points upwards to raise the mind towards Heaven for the
journey thither, directs by a downward indication the earthly
pilgrimage of many a benighted wanderer both by sea and
land. "God is great," says the Moslem, and verily the Moslem
speaks true in his saying. Great He is, in the stars of Heaven,
these unknown worlds of illimitable space, and great, equally
great, in the humble though beautiful insect before us.
The outer margin of the wings is brown, and their front edge
is striated on the inner half with streaks of dark yellowish
and black.
The hind wings are also reddish brown on the central and
hinder parts of their surface; the base being brown, studded
with innumerable specks of yellow dust, and the outside bor­
der brown: near the outer corner is a very large eye surrounded
with a colour which approaches more nearly to white than any
other, and it is bounded on its inside with blackish brown. The
eye itself is black, with five blue specks in it—two, tw r o, and one.
Underneath, the fore wings are dark brown, streaked across
with an infinity of darker marks, some wider, some narrower,
and some of deeper shades than others.
The hind wings are of a darker ground colour than the fore
ones, striated in the same way, and across their centre is one
large waved bar formed by dark edges, and in its centre an
obscure yellowish white dot.
The caterpillar is gregarious in its habits, black, spined,
spotted with white, and the hind legs are red.
The chrysalis is indented, of a greenish colour, and dotted
with gold.