100 THE BOOK OF BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



flyers and bold insects, haunting the gardens and even 

 streets of our towns, as well as sylvan glades and flowery 

 hillsides, where butterflies are usually to be found. When 

 intent on sipping the nectar of flowers or it may be, 

 in the case of antiopa^ the juices of over-ripe fruit 

 they may often be taken with the hand. 



The Peacock and indeed all the Vanessas delight to 

 sun themselves upon the heads of thistles and other 

 similar plants, and may there be watched alternately 

 opening and closing their wings, one moment displaying 

 all the colours of the rainbow, and the next, may be, 

 a deep, funereal black. Then is the time with a down- 

 ward sweep of the net to secure the prize; but, should 

 the attempt fail, one would need the speed of the wind 

 to get another stroke, unless, as . is very likely, the insect 

 should wantonly return to the same neighbourhood. 



A point worthy of note in connection with the contrast 

 between the brilliant colouring of the upper surface and 

 the sombre tints underneath is the means afforded thereby 

 for the insect's protection. Though, for instance, the 

 Large Tortoiseshell would be readily enough seen when 

 displaying its upper surface on the bark of an elm-tree, 

 let it once close its wings and it would need a practised 

 eye indeed to detect its presence. 



The caterpillars vary somewhat in colour and in the 

 arrangement of the dots, or lines, or both, with which 

 they are marked, but they are all alike in being adorned 

 with spines. The caterpillar of the Large Tortoise- 

 shell feeds on the elm for which reason the perfect 

 insect is sometimes called the Elm Butterfly and also 

 on the willow, which is the food-plant of the larva of 

 the Camberwell Beauty/ That of the Comma feeds on 

 various plants, the hop, red currant, elm, willow, and 

 nettle being amongst them. The Painted Lady larva 



