The British Butterflies Described 



trace of spots. The male, though nearly the same in 

 markings, is very much darker. 



The cate-rpillar is a grass-feeder, and is green, with 

 some lighter and darker stripes. It is very like the 

 grass it lives amongst. The eggs are laid in the 

 autumn, and the young caterpillars hibernate. 



THE SPECKLED WOOD BUTTERFLY (Pararge jEgeria), 

 Plate IX., Fig. 4. There must be something peculiar 

 about this butterfly, which always reminds me of a 

 snake ; it is curious how such an idea gets into one's 

 head and sticks there. I have a lot of preserved home 

 and foreign snakes, and not a few of them are checkered 

 and marked like this butterfly's wings ; one large skin 

 of a boa constrictor bears a remarkable resemblance 

 both in colour and spots. Nature seems to delight in 

 these eyelike markings you will find them on the 

 trout, the peacock, the leopard, and on certain beetles, 

 flowers, and birds' eggs. Wherever you find them they 

 are always beautiful and interesting, and have a certain 

 protective use. 



The Speckled Wood is more easily recognized than 

 described. The upper side is of a dull brown, spotted 

 with pale yellow, or (as in some northern specimens I 

 have taken) with white. There is one eye-spot near 

 the tip of the fore-^ing, and a row of three, sometimes 

 four, similar spots in a submarginal row on the hind 

 wings. The under side is richer and warmer in colour, 

 having a purple tinge, while the eye-spots of the hind- 

 wings are nearly obsolete, but the spot on the fore-wing 

 is, if anything, brighter. It is a fairly common species, 

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