CHAPTER XXVIII.

BEAUTY OF THE COVERINGS OF ANIMALS.

[Sidenote: Beauty of some very small insects.]

There is great variety in the coverings of insects. In some the covering is like burnished armor. The variety of colors is exceedingly great, and in many they have a splendid brilliancy. Some of the smallest insects, which most people never notice, are surpassingly beautiful when examined with the microscope. It is with them in this respect as it is with some of the smallest flowers. We know not how much beauty there is all around us in the small things that God has created till we take the microscope and look at them.

[Sidenote: Butterflies.]

The butterflies are among the most beautiful of insects. Almost every variety of color is to be seen in them, and often many colors are seen together, arranged in the most beautiful manner. You can not have any idea of the great variety of their beauty unless you see some collection of them in cases in some museum.

[Sidenote: Colors in shells.]

You have often admired the beauty of different shells. These are the coverings of animals who lead a very quiet life in them, as I told you about the oyster. Very splendid are the colors often on the inside of these coverings, and sometimes on the outside also; and even when the outside is not at all handsome when we get the shell from the water, we often find that clearing off the outer coating with acid, or by rubbing, will show us beautiful colors. Then, too, by grinding the shell in different parts of it, different layers are seen of different hues.

[Sidenote: Why God made shells so beautiful.]

The beauty of these coverings is of no use to the animals that live in them. They have no eyes to see it. For what, then, is it intended? It is for our gratification. The Creator strews beautiful things even on the bottom of the ocean for us. If the coverings, or houses, as we may call them, of all the animals that live there were as homely as that of the oyster, they would be as useful and comfortable for them as they are now, decked with their elegant colors. So far as they are concerned, the beauty is thrown away. But men gather the shells, and, while they admire them, they see in the beauty which the Creator lavishes even in the depths of the sea the evidence of his abounding goodness.

The variety of beauty in the coverings of birds is very great. The various colors are arranged in their plumage in every variety of manner, and there are all shades of the colors, from the most brilliant to the most delicate.

[Sidenote: The hoopoe.]

Commonly the greatest display in the plumage of birds is in the delicate and downy feathers of the breast. But the bird that you see here, the hoopoe, has its chief beauty in its crest, which is of an orange color tipped with black. It is one of the most elegant of birds.

[Sidenote: The beauty of the peacock.]

[Sidenote: Its pride.]

[Sidenote: Its disagreeable voice.]

In the peacock, a drawing of which you have here, there is a great display of colors. The animal struts about, and, lifting its tail in the air, spreads it like a fan, and seems to be very foolishly proud of its beauty. Proud people generally have something disagreeable about them, and so it is with the peacock. Its voice is so harsh and screeching that no one wants it in his neighborhood.

[Sidenote: A bird of paradise.]

[Sidenote: Its cleanliness.]

Birds of Paradise, as they are called, are exceedingly beautiful. There are several kinds of them. The most common kind is the one pictured here. I will give you an idea of its colors. Most of its body is a rich brown; the throat is a golden green; the head is yellow; the long, downy feathers that you see so abundant about the tail are of a soft yellow color. This elegant bird is very careful to prevent the least speck of dirt from getting on its plumage; and when it sits on a branch of a tree it always faces the wind, so that its feathers may not be ruffled.

[Sidenote: Humming-birds.]

There is, I think, in the humming-birds more variety of color than in any other kind of birds. The colors are very brilliant, especially upon the delicate feathers of their breasts; and they are shaded in the most beautiful manner. I never saw a finer display of colors than I once saw in a collection of humming-birds in a museum in Philadelphia. On the following page is an engraving of a few varieties of these birds. You can see what different shapes they have. They are alike only in their long, slender bills. And when one sees a large collection of them, with all their varied forms and colors, he is struck with admiration and wonder.

[Sidenote: Beauty of the furs of animals.]

Many of the furs of animals have much beauty, but there is no such great variety of color as there is in the plumage of birds. As you blow on a fine fur, and see how thickly its delicate fibres stand together, you admire its richness. Each fibre of it is in itself a beautiful thing.

[Sidenote: A caterpillar.]

We hardly know why it is that some animals that we dislike so much should have so much beauty. Worms and caterpillars are disgusting to us, and yet in many of them there is a great display of elegant colors. While writing this, I see one crawling along on my coat-sleeve with its numerous feet of curious shape. Its color is a brilliant green. On its back stand up in a row three beautiful light yellow tufts. Behind these, on a dark stripe, are two fleshy-looking round bunches, that are a most brilliant red. On its side bristle out white hairs in bundles. Its head is red, and from it extend forward dark colored but very delicate feelers, in two bundles. I suppose they are feelers, because they are shaped like the feelers of the butterfly, which you see on page 118.

[Sidenote: Why such animals are often very beautiful.]

Now why is it that so much beauty is given to such animals? It does not seem to be of any use. But this can not be so, for God has a use for every thing that he makes. We are to remember that he can make a thing beautiful as easily as he can make it homely. And it is just this lesson, perhaps, that he means to teach us when he clothes such creatures as worms and caterpillars in coverings of beautiful colors. It is different with us. We try to make beautiful only those things that we prize much. There are some things that it would be a foolish waste of time for us to ornament. This is because we can do but little in making things beautiful. But there is no end to God’s power in the creation of beauty. He can, by the word of his power, make just as many beautiful things as he pleases.

_Questions._--What is said about the variety of colors in insects? What is said about butterflies? What about shells? Is their beauty of any use to the animals that live in them? Why is so much beauty put in them? What is said about the variety of colors in the coverings of birds? Tell about the hoopoe. Tell about the peacock and about the birds of Paradise. What is said about humming-birds? What is said of the furs of animals? What is said about worms and caterpillars? Why is so much beauty often given to such animals?