138 WILD LIFE AT HOME. 



few yards of us, remained still where they had 

 alighted, spreading their wings out and displaying 

 their array of beautiful colours. We made one 

 study of the insect nearest to us as it rested on a 

 piece of an old mowing machine, and then ap- 

 proached and made another at much shorter range. 

 Upon preparing to expose a third plate with the 

 camera nearer still, the sun came out in a bright 

 warm gleam and up went the wings of the small 

 tortoiseshell. In another moment it would have 

 been up and oft' to join its companions in an aerial 

 waltz had not my brother, noticing the change in 

 its demeanour, gently pushed his head forward 

 so as to intercept the sun's rays and throw the 

 insect into shadow. The effect was instantaneous; 

 down went the wings from the vertical to the hori- 

 zontal and the butterfly became quiescent. We made 

 one or two more studies, and then some experiments 

 upon its behaviour under shadow and sunshine. 

 Directly my brother moved his head on one side up 

 went the wings, but when it was again placed in the 

 shade the insect evidently thought that the life- 

 giving gleam had ended and quietly dropped them. 

 We tried others with precisely similar results, and 

 yet when I have watched them to their sleeping 

 quarters in the evening, behind pieces of dislodged 

 bark and old boards, I have always found them with 

 wings erect. 



We tried over and over again to make a picture 

 of a common white butterfly in my garden, by 



