64 REV. C. M. PEEKINS BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



seventy. Mr. Stainton, whose classification I shall follow, reckons 

 their number at 66, while some other eminent entomologists make 

 the number rather greater by inserting one or two species which 

 may have been found by accident, perhaps brought over from the 

 Continent in the pupa state with some botanical specimen, or by 

 counting as separate species certain varieties of species which are 

 not unfrequently taken. 



I feel it can hardly be necessary to say that the butterfly is not 

 the only form in which the insect so named exists, for this fact is 

 generally learnt at a very early age, through the not uncommon 

 practice of allowing our children to rear silkworms, and it is quite 

 necessary to the accurate knowledge of Lepidoptera to study the 

 insect in all its phases. It may seem to some hardly credible, 

 but the future butterfly may be known from the tiny egg more 

 certainly than many of our birds by the same means, for the egg 

 of the insect has far greater distinctions, taking the most wonder- 

 ful forms and appearances, and no more beautiful objects can be 

 found for the microscope than several of the butterflies' eggs. But 

 to know them in the larva or caterpillar state is still more necessary, 

 for by this chiefly we classify them, which we cannot do from their 

 eggs, for two butterflies closely allied will differ very materially in 

 the egg state. Again, the pupa or chrysalis state is also well 

 worthy of notice, and it is most curious to observe how the whole 

 of one family will invariably suspend themselves by the tail, 

 hanging head doAvnwards, thus to remain till the butterfly emerges ; 

 and how another, in addition to the fastening at the tail, will tie 

 a silken cord round the body, and thus suspend and support 

 themselves in an opposite direction, viz. head uppermost to a twig 

 or wall ; and how a third will invariably bury or cover themselves 

 up in a leaf, or hide beneath the bark of a tree, thus concealing 

 themselves from view. 



The 66 butterflies are classed under flve families, respectively 

 termed in science, Papilionida^, Nymphalidce, Erycinidte, Lycsenida?, 

 and Hesperidfe. 



The Papilionidfe are readily distinguished fi'om the other 

 families in the larva state by being vermiform or worm-shaped, 

 and in the perfect or butterfly state they have a ground colour of 

 their own, varying from white to brilliant saffron yellow. Many 

 of this family are well known even to the unobservant, for it is 

 next to impossible not to notice in the first bright days of the year, 

 long before the leaves come out and nature generally revives, the 

 beautiful primrose-coloured butterfly flitting down some woodland 

 path or along some sunny railway bank, or perhaps across our 

 garden, where we would fain have it stop that we might feast our 

 eyes a little space, but on it goes and seldom seems to rest in these 

 early days ; and then tell me which of you in your younger days 

 has not chased the cabbage white about the garden, much to the 

 detriment of your hat, particularly if it happened to be made of 

 straw. I should be sorry, if I knew the number, to confess how 

 many I have spoilt, but of this one thing I am certain, that had 



