SKIPPERS. 137 



folded. Moths, on the contrary, rest usually with them all 

 open ; but some of our Hesperida, following a sort of inter- 

 mediate habit, repose with their foremost pinions closed and 

 directed upwards, while the hindmost are open and divergent. 



Their mode of transit from flower to flower, or from branch 

 to branch, whereon they are continually settling, is as peculiar 

 as their manner of resting : being performed by short, rapid, 

 jerking flights, from which they have acquired the name of 

 " Skippers." In their large heads and robust shoulders, they 

 assimilate to moths ; while in their clubbed and sometimes 

 hooked antennae, they approach to butterflies. Amongst the 

 latter Linnaeus placed them ; but, from their wide divergence 

 from the usual papilionaceous type their inferior elegance of 

 form and flight their lesser size, and sober colouring, usually 

 brown and orange tawny he has assigned them a station at the 

 bottom of butterfly society, where they figure meanly as his 

 Plebeii urbicoli. Many of the tropical species cut, however, 

 anything but a mean figure, being adorned with pellucid spots 

 and sporting tails of an imposing length. 



Of our British Hesperida, the most common is the larger 

 Skipper,"* common in woods and lanes from May to August, 

 with variegated wings of brown and orange tawny, the fore- 

 most pair on the under side yellow, inclining at the tip to 

 green, and all plainly fringed. 



* Pampkila sylvcmus. 



