::::::::ae THE MAGIC POOLS sfe::::;::: 



walk up to them and pick them from their places, while 

 at other times these very butterflies would not come 

 within many yards of our net. 



The under side of the wings of these insects was 

 a pale pea-green ; while above, one species {Anteos 

 mcerula) was of a delicate yellow-green, and a second 

 species (^;i^eos clcmnde) was whitish with a bold stain 

 of the richest, warmest orange. When these latter 

 alighted, their wings snapped together, and what a 

 moment before was a conspicuous span of colour was 

 now but a faded greenish leaf fallen to the pool's edge. 



With these, in the heat of the day, came rarely beau- 

 tiful butterflies of jet, shot with rich purple. Only 

 a few were seen and these were wary and alert. Their 

 wings were never still. When they alighted for a mo- 

 ment's sip beside the pool, their legs were bent, their 

 wings nervously a-quiver, ready for instant flight. 

 A Black Phcebe once dashed at one with a lightning 

 swoop, but the motion of the bird was leisure itself 

 compared to the swift escape of the insect. The only 

 way to capture one of them was to stalk it carefully, 

 creeping behind rock and bush, and swooping with the 

 net a full yard beyond the insect. Even then the chances 

 w^ere always in favour of the butterfly. 



Mud wasps — yellow, red, and white — worked all 

 day gathering tiny pellets of the stream-refined clay, 

 bearing them aloft to plaster tree or rock with egg- 

 protecting tunnels ; undoing, in their small way, the 



-o^ 209 -^ 



