THE BOOK OF 



BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The Butterfly's Place in Nature. 



N commencing a popular account of our 

 British butterflies, it will doubtless not be 

 labour wasted if a few lines are devoted 

 to the consideration of what a butterfly- 

 is, and to pointing out its proper position 

 in the scale of animal life. Indeed, this seems not 

 only expedient, but absolutely necessary, seeing that a 

 curious, but at the same time very general, idea prevails 

 that the term " animal " cannot properly be applied at 

 all to butterflies and other of the smaller creatures that 

 live and move and have their being upon the earth. 

 Those who possess this idea are not, of course, students 

 of Nature ; for it would be impossible to turn over many 

 pages in her book without discovering that all these 

 creatures, however small, however simple, are endowed 



