Page:Micrographia - or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses with observations and inquiries thereupon.djvu/296

Rh Wings, the two formost somewhat longer then the two hindermost, and the two shorter about half an Inch long, each of which four Wings seem'd to consist of two small long Feathers, very curiously tufted, or haired on each side, with purely white, and exceedingly fine and small Haires, proportion'd to the stalks or stems, out of which they grew, much like the tufts of a long wing-feather of some Bird, and their stalks or stems were, like those, bended backwards and downwards, as may be plainly seen by the draughts of them in the Figure.

Observing one of these in my Microscope, I found, in the first place, that all the Body, Legs, Horns and the Stalks of the Wings, were covered over with various kinds of curious white Feathers, which did, with handling or touching, easily rubb off and fly about, in so much that looking on my Fingers, with which I had handled this Moth, and perceiving on them little white specks, I found by my Microscope, that they were several of the small Feathers of this little creature, that stuck up and down in the rugosities of my Skin.

Next, I found that underneath these Feathers, the pretty Insect was covered all over with a crusted Shell, like other of those Animals, but with one much thinner and tenderer.

Thirdly, I found, as in Birds also is notable, it had differing and appropriate kinds of Feathers, that covered several parts of its body.

Fourthly, surveying the parts of its body, with a more accurate and better Magnifying Microscope, I found that the tufts or haires of its Wings were nothing else but a congeries, or thick set cluster of small vimina or twiggs, resembling a small twigg of Birch, stript or whitned, with which Brushes are usually made, to beat out or brush off the dust from Cloth and Hangings. Every one of the twiggs or branches that composed the Brush of the Feathers, appeared in this bigger Magnifying Glass (of which E F which represents part of an Inch, is the scale, as G is of the lesser, which is only ) like the figure D. The Feathers also that covered a part of his Body, and were interspersed among the brush of his Wings, I found, in the bigger Magnifying Glass, of the shape A, consisting of a stalk or stem in the middle, and a seeming tuftedness or brushy part on each side. The Feathers that cover'd most part of his Body and the stalk of his wings, were, in the same Microscope, much of the figure B, appearing of the shape of a small Feather, and seemed tufted: those which covered the Horns and small parts of the Leggs, through the same Microscope, appear'd of the shape C. Whether the tufts of any or all of these small Feathers, consisted of such component particles as the Feathers of Birds, I much doubt, because I find that Nature does not alwaies keep, or operate after the same method, in smaller and bigger creatures. And of this, we have particular Instances in the Wings of several creatures. For whereas, in Birds of all kinds, it composes each of the Feathers of which its Wing consists, of such an exceeding curious and most admirable and stupendious texture, as I else where shew, in the Observations on a Feather; we find it to alter its method quite, in the fabrick of the Wings of these minute creatures, composing some of thin extended membranes Rh