74 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



battered and weather-worn were the pretty cieaturea 

 but still retaining much of the golden bloom of theii 

 summer dress. 



The Clouded Yellow has been found hybernating in 

 the chink of an old wall at the end of February, but I 

 am not aware of its coming out again in the spring, 

 like the Brimstone. 



The ground tint of the wings is an exceedingly rich 

 orange-yellow, or saffron colour, surrounded by a border 

 of very dark brown, sometimes nearly black. This 

 border is marked, in the male, with thin yellow lines, 

 and in the female with paler yellow spots. There is a 

 beautiful rose tint in the fringe of the wings and on 

 their front edge. Underneath the wings are paler yellow, 

 taking a citron hue in some parts, and marked with black 

 and brown ; in the centre of the under wings is a brown- 

 circled silvery spot. 



There is a peculiar and constant variety of the female, 

 in which all the yellow portion of the upper surface is 

 replaced by a greenish white tint ; but in every other 

 respect the insect agrees with the common form of 

 Edusa. This interesting variety was formerly ranked 

 as another species, under the name of G. Helice ; but it 

 is a curious fact that no corresponding variety of the 

 male has ever been observed ; and last year I captured 

 a pair together — a white female and common orange 

 male — who were on those terms of tender intimacy 

 which are generally supposed to betoken identity of 

 species. 



