REV. C. M. PEEKIXS — BMTISH BUTTERFLIES. 69 



vain. My eyes have never yet been gladdened with the sight 

 of it alive, and I have to content myself with admiring two 

 specimens which were given me. These were caught, I believe, 

 in Essex, and I should not be surprised to hear that this county 

 also produces it. Apatura Iris, the purple emperor, comes next 

 in order, and with most collectors first in esteem of all the butter- 

 flies. The beautiful purple with which his majesty is clothed 

 delights the eye and makes him a deserved favourite. But few 

 who are not entomologists know him while alive, for he is not 

 one to intrude himself upon the eye like the gaudy peacock, which 

 seems to delight in flaunting the large purple eyes in its wings 

 before you on any low flower, but you must look aloft for his royal 

 highness, and only then in the secluded park or dense forest. 

 Here on some isolated oak he sets his throne, on the very top, ever 

 and anon dashing with bold flight into the air above, it may be 

 to engage in fierce contest with some brother emperor, who has 

 ventured too near to his domains, perhaps to woo some lady fair he 

 wishes to make his empress. You may see him thus by searching 

 for him, but how to catch him is another thing. No net will 

 reach him, and you may wait and wait for hours, yet he won't 

 come down to give you a chance of netting him. What is to be 

 done ? You can see at a glance, even could you climb the tree, 

 you would have little chance of netting him, he settles in such 

 awkward places on the foliage right outside. Some persons tell us 

 that when you have discov^^red his whereabouts, you sliould carry 

 there the nastiest thing that you can find, say some filthy carrion, 

 and place it near his seat, for that he will demean himself so far as 

 to make this the object of his depraved taste, and thus lowering 

 himself he is easily captured. This rests on good authority, but 

 I have never tried it myself, so cannot say that it is a certain 

 plan. It may have succeeded once or twice, but possibly may not 

 always. Another plan, and likely to be successful, is to search 

 the sallows well in the neighbourhood of his haunts, and look for 

 the green larvae with yellow stripes, and thus rear him in confine- 

 nient. The only place I have yet taken him is in the Forest of 

 Dean, where he was far from common in my experience, but as 

 several contiguous counties to our own are said to produce him, we 

 ought, I think, to find him here. 



I pass on to Cynthia Cardui, the painted lady, with which most 

 of you must be familiar. Ought I to say I am sorry that painted 

 ladies are so common as they are, and join my voice with those who 

 would condemn Madame llachel and Co. in their art of beautifying ? 

 Be that as it may, you will find them in almost every cornfield of 

 this neighbourhood in spring and autumn, swiftly flying up and 

 down that path which may lead you through, alighting every 

 few minutes on or near the same spot. Very wary is my lady, 

 and hard indeed to catch ; but wait for her return after you 

 have struck at her in vain, perhaps a dozen times, and most 

 likely in the end your patience will be rewarded. It is little 

 use giving chase to her, for she is as fleet as the wind itself. 



