THE FAERY YEAR 



being tip-toe, the highest of their grand white 

 blossoms tinged with pink and faintly fragrant. 

 These blossoms are a feeding, sunning, gathering 

 ground for insect life. Refined tiny moths of the 

 day, alert as any butterfly, sit on them, a-quiver with 

 life. Yellow and black striped beetles, flies painted 

 with greens rich as the polished chrysolite's, gather 

 here ; if the cow-parsnip depend on cross-fertiliza- 

 tion marriage well out of the family circle its 

 future should be assured ; for on a bright day, when 

 its anthers have matured, troops and troops of 

 insect visitors must go away pollen-dusted from 

 its hospitality. 



Butterflies' Beauty Show 



Where the avenue ends in the hollow, is a little 

 grassy angle, which, through most of the summer, is 

 a favoured spot with butterflies, being sun-steeped 

 and screened from wind. Grizzled and dingy 

 skippers were here in May and June, with orange- 

 tips, small heaths, and common blues. Now, 

 instead, we have the meadow-brown, rather plain 

 and prosaic for a butterfly, and the small and large 

 skippers. The large skipper which is a very small 

 butterfly is quite a different insect in flight, 

 physique, and dress from the small heath. The 

 large skipper can dart and flicker, whereas the 

 small heath can but bob about like a meadow- 

 brown. The skipper is portly and muscular ; the 

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