THE FAERY YEAR 



to piercing sight and discrimination in the creature 

 of prey was referred to here recently the trout, 

 which hundreds of thousands of years has been 

 examining nicely, pursuing, and swallowing the 

 ephemeridae or water-flies, and yet can sometimes, 

 in a clear stream and on a bright day, be duped by 

 the fisher's fly. 



Last month I found an orange-tip asleep on a 

 grass head. It was quite noticeable, and yet I doubt 

 much whether its position was more risky than if it 

 had gone to rest on the flower of one of the umbel- 

 liferous plants, chervil or hedge parsley. The theory 

 here is that the green flowery device on the under 

 side of the orange-tip's wing has been acquired 

 through its sleeping constantly on the flowers of 

 umbelliferous plants, in which there is a mixture of 

 green and white. Certainly this suspected case of 

 mimicry in the orange-tip plagiarizing the parsley 

 is attractive. The mimicry is closer and more de- 

 tailed than in most instances, only one doubts 

 whether the winged butterfly needs coddling up 

 when it has gone to bed. Let it perch on its grass 

 stem as safety goes in the world of wild life, it is 

 well enough there, mimicry or not. 



The Rookery at Dusk 



By mid-August we feel the shortening of the 

 day. At eight o'clock on a halcyon eve the bat 

 hawks where the swallow did, the dorr is booming, 

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