With a sharp pair of scissors, and without otherwise touching the butterflies, I cut off their antennae near the base.  The victims barely noticed the operation.  None moved; there was scarcely a flutter of the wings.  Their condition was excellent; the wound did not seem to be in the least serious.  They were not perturbed by physical suffering, and would therefore be all the better adapted to my designs.  They passed the rest of the day in placid immobility on the cross-bars of the window.

A few other arrangements were still to be made.  In particular it was necessary to change the scene; not to leave the female under the eyes of the mutilated butterflies at the moment of resuming their nocturnal flight; the difficulty of the search must not be lessened.  I therefore removed the cage and its captive, and placed it under a porch on the other side of the house, at a distance of some fifty paces from my study.

At nightfall I went for a last time to inspect my eight victims.  Six had left by the open window; two still remained, but they had fallen on the floor, and no longer had the strength to recover themselves if turned over on their backs.  They were exhausted, dying.  Do not accuse my surgery, however.  Such early decease was observed repeatedly, with no intervention on my part.

Six, in better condition, had departed.  Would they return to the call that attracted them the night before?  Deprived of their antennae, would they be able to find the captive, now placed at a considerable distance from her original position?

The cage was in darkness, almost in the open air.  From time to time I visited it with a net and lantern.  The visitors were captured, inspected, and immediately released in a neighbouring room, of which I closed the door.  This gradual elimination allowed me to count the visitors exactly without danger of counting the same butterfly more than once.  Moreover, the provisional prison, large and bare, in no wise harmed or endangered the prisoners; they found a quiet retreat there and ample space.  Similar precautions were taken during the rest of my experiments.

After half-past ten no more arrived.  The reception was over.  Total, twenty-five males captured, of which one only was deprived of its antennae.  So of the six operated on earlier in the day, which were strong enough to leave my study and fly back to the fields, only one had returned to the cage.  A poor result, in which I could place no confidence as proving whether the antennae did or did not play a directing part.  It was necessary to begin again upon a larger scale.

Next morning I visited the prisoners of the day before.  What I saw was not encouraging.  A large number were scattered on the ground, almost inert.  Taken between the fingers, several of them gave scarcely a sign of life.  Little was to be hoped from these, it would seem.  Still, I determined to try; perhaps they would regain their vigour at the lover’s hour.