The British Butterflies Described 



most abundant in North America, well up into Canada, 

 where the winter is extremely severe. We have the 

 food-plant in abundance, yet it is questionable if ever the 

 Camberwell Beauty has been found in any but the 

 winged state in this country. Records there are of its 

 capture year after year, but there never seems to be 

 progeny left by these occasional visitors. The wings 

 are a dark chocolate-brown, bordered with creamy white. 

 Between the brown and the white is a broad black band 

 studded with blue spots ; there are also two white spots 

 on the costal margin near the tip of the fore-wing. It 

 measures from 2-J to 3^ inches in expanse, North 

 American specimens being the largest. 



The caterpillar is black, with white dots, and has a 

 row of red spots along the back. The pro-legs are also 

 red, spines black. It feeds on the Willow. The 

 chrysalis is brown, with darker spots ; its abdominal 

 points are sharp and angular. Single 'specimens of 

 this species occur in most seasons from August to 

 October, generally in the South, but it has been recorded 

 for Scotland on several occasions. 



THE RED ADMIRAL (Vanessa Atalanta), Plate VIII., 

 Fig. i. He must have been a poet who first conceived 

 so appropriate a name for this gallant rover. Possibly 

 he was living long ago 



" When Britons truly ruled the waves, 

 In good Queen Pess's glorious days," 



or later, when Nelson's old "wooden walls" spread 

 their bellying sails to catch the breeze. Those were 

 days of romance. Fancy the Admiral of a super- 



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