l6o THE BOOK OF BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



convex. The fringe is white. The ground-colour is pale 

 drab-brown, somewhat brighter than elsewhere in the 

 central part of the fore-wings. On the under-surface (Fig. 

 175) the wings are still lighter, the hind-wings and the 

 margins of the fore-wings being ash-coloured. On this 

 surface, too, there is a whitish line backed with a darker 

 tint across the fore-wings, and on the hind-wings an 

 irregular one of the same colour starting from the costal 

 margin and stretching half-way or more across the wing. 

 The females are usually lighter than the males, and have 

 a pale mark across the middle of the fore-wings on the 

 upper surface. So far, individuals are pretty constant in 

 their colouring and markings, but we have still to 

 describe the eye-spots, and in these perhaps no member 

 of the Ringlet group is more variable. They may be 

 practically absent from the upper surface, and nearly or 

 quite so from the lower ; or they may be very fully 

 developed on the under-surface. and as many as four in 

 number on the fore-wings and seven on the hind ones, 

 though the numbers are generally two and six. When 

 the eye-spots show at all on the upper surface they are, 

 as a rule, two on the fore-wings and four on the hind 

 ones. The spots are as usual black, with white centres, 

 and surrounded by a pale ring. The variety with the well- 

 developed eye-spots, whose home seems to be in the 

 north of England, is sometimes called philoxenus, Esper, 

 or rothliebiy Staudinger. 



C. pamphilus, Linn. (Figs. 176 to 179), is usually, in 

 non-scientific language, called the Small Heath, though it 

 has another name, not, however, a good one Least 

 Meadow Brown. It is a small butterfly, particularly 

 common and very constant in its colour and markings. 

 It no doubt prefers heaths, downs, commons, and similar 

 situations, but is by no means limited to them ; indeed, it 



