THE FAERY YEAR 



and suspicious. But one can mitigate it. I have 

 softly stroked the tail and back of a humming- 

 bird hawk moth whilst it has been quivering over 

 a fuchsia bed, and it has not been scared. 



By gentlest movements one can take various 

 moths and butterflies with the hand. I captured, 

 the other day, between thumb and forefinger, 

 beautifully fresh specimens of the Duke of 

 Burgundy fritillary, small pearl-bordered fritillary, 

 and common blue, letting them go uninjured. The 

 same day I offered the palm of my hand to the 

 burnet moths, as they burred among the grasses, 

 and they quivered over it without fear. This 

 was in the sunshine, when butterflies and day 

 moths are most on the alert. No doubt one 

 could tame butterflies like birds. Several red 

 admiral butterflies, however, which I tried to 

 finger on the brambles, as they sunned or rested, 

 with wings upright, were too wary, to my chagrin. 

 I could not touch one. I was not more fortunate 

 with grizzled skipper, small skipper, or the (larger) 

 pearl- bordered fritillary. Much time and curious 

 patience are necessary to one who would have the 

 butterflies about him as St. Francis the birds. 



The Fritillary's Flirtation 



Erasmus Darwin wrote of the loves of the 

 plants. How is it nobody has told the story of the 

 loves of the butterflies ? Theirs often is a courtship 

 140 



