THE FAERY YEAR 



thinker on these phenomena was convinced. But 

 why should there be myriads of myriads of such 

 displays among the butterflies each summer month 

 each summer day which attract no favourable 

 notice, lead to no mate ? The large skipper will go 

 on displaying his beauty to perfection poising the 

 upper wings so that just the purplish scrap of the 

 lower wings, and not more, can be well observed 

 careless, unconscious as to whether or not there is a 

 looker-on and admirer. It is so hard to feel quite 

 sure, watching repeatedly these solitary, independent 

 displays, that the thing is not done for the joy and 

 pride in the doing simply because the butterfly 

 likes it. If neither motive explain satisfactorily the 

 conduct of the butterfly, a third may suggest itself- 

 that these flights, this sunning, this gentle opening 

 or half opening and closing of the wing, lovely 

 wing-play, are all parcel of a butterfly perfecting 

 process ; that when they have been repeated often 

 enough, he is the physically perfect insect, one of the 

 successful and the matured, privileged by Nature to 

 preserve the life of the species. 



A Butterfly's Banquet 



Courtship, aerial exercise, battle, finery, and 

 jealous choice of station we have touched on each 

 of these phases in the life of a butterfly. But this 

 is not by any means all the little which even the 

 human eye, poorly equipped though it is for such 

 164 



