82 SHARP EYES 



wings, each with its red eye- spot and long tail. We 

 have caught him in the meadow, we have found his 

 gray chrysalis hanging under the clapboards, and have 

 wished for a few more pairs of hands as we gath- 

 ered the black-banded, gold-spotted, green caterpillars 

 among the garden beds of parsley and carrot. We will 

 say nothing of those yellow horns which he keeps so 

 carefully concealed; and which he will display upon 

 slight provocation, though, if he only knew it, he ap- 

 pears to much better advantage without this peculiar 

 head-dress. 



But while we knew our butterfly all our lives, capt- 

 ured him, mounted him, and with learned label, " Pa- 

 pilio Asterias" stowed him in our cabinet in the com- 

 fortable conceit that there was little else to be known 

 about him, how few of us have thought of what a rare 

 lesson in botany this Asterias has been wasting on us 

 all these years? 



In a previous volume* I have devoted a chapter to 

 the botanical instincts among butterflies as seen in their 

 selection of food plants for their young, and this Aste- 

 rias is one of the most remarkable examples. Under 

 his guidance during a single day we may learn a sur- 

 prising lesson in botany. 



We have too long thought only of the " idle butter- 

 fly " of the poet as the type of charming heedlessness, 

 the "gay idler "- 



" The sportive rover of the meadows . 



Kissing all buds that are pretty and sweet," 



and sipping honey in " quiet ecstasy." 



* Strolls by Starlight and Sunshine. 



