48 
Wycombe Buttertlies. 
OUR VANESSIDZ. 
HE butterflies in this family are the most gorgeously coloured 
of any found in Great Britain; and with one exception they 
are very plentiful. These two considerations lead me to believe 
that a short account of such species as are to be seen in this locality 
cannot fail to be interesting to the readers of the Wycombe 
Quarterly. Who has not gazed with interest and wonder at the 
lovely Io, fanning its peacock wings in the sun asit sits ona 
flower and extracts its nectar, or at the stately Atalanta, the 
Red Admirable, with its magnificent contrast of scarlet and 
black sailing along the pathway and then disappearing over the 
high hedge? ‘The boy is filled with the ardent desire to possess 
the treasure ; the thoughtful man desires to know something of 
the life history of these living gems. 
The early part of their lives, however, is not what we might 
expect ; to the general observer they are then unsightly looking 
creatures, devouring the foliage of the elm, thistle, or despised 
nettle. They are passed by as if they were worthless, neglected 
because of their more than homely garb, and when you assure him 
that they will one day be gaily coloured butterflies he starts, and 
says ‘‘impossible.’’ But the naturalist knows the interest at- 
tached to the shunned caterpillar ; he takes it home, provides it 
with food, watches it with delight and astonishment day by day, 
as it passes through its various changes and the little ‘‘ills that 
flesh is heir to ;”” and he is rewarded at last by seeing it emerge 
from its chrysalis case a bright and happy thing of air. Let me 
assure my readers that there is nothing that will prove so inter- 
esting and fascinating to them as lovers of nature than the rearing 
of butterflies through all their stages; it is so easily done, and 
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