160 BUTTERFLIES 



start into flight. He described his experience in these 

 words : 



"Starting up a pair just at my feet on the Mt. Washing- 

 ton carriage road one day, I stopped abruptly to see 

 whether they would settle again. After flying a few yards 

 away to escape the cause of their disturbance, one turned 

 back and dashed straight at my face, turning only when 

 within three or four inches of my nose, and then suddenly 

 whisked off with a distinct click as it did so, snapping its 

 fingers, as it were, in my very face. There was no sort 

 of doubt about this click, though if it had not been made 

 so close at hand it would probably not have been heard. 

 But other butterflies in the tropics have long been known 

 to emit sounds like this, which can be heard at a consider- 

 able distance; others, including some of our own butter- 

 flies, are known to produce a rustling sound by the rubbing 

 of one wing upon another; and movements of one sort and 

 another have been so often observed, as of the opposite 

 rubbing of the erect wings in most Lycaenids, and the 

 tremulous agitation of the wings in many different sorts 

 when excited, as to leave little doubt that sounds made 

 by themselves and for the advantage of warning their 

 brethren play a not unimportant part in the lives of but- 

 terflies." 



The Red Admiral or Nettle Butterfly 



Vanessa atalanta 



Among the weedy plants which have been intimately 

 associated with mankind ever since his slow upward 

 progress in civilization began, the nettle has probably 

 played almost as important a part as the thistle. While 



