66 THE BUTTERFLY BATTLE. 



gorgeous with all the colours of the rainbow in short, a peacock 

 butterfly. 



" Just then John puts his hand upon the gate. ' Oh, John, 

 such a beautiful butterfly !' ' Where ?' says John. ' There,' says 

 Jane, pointing to the marigold, on which something like a leaf 

 of a dull brown-black colour was sitting. ' Call that beauti- 

 ful ?' said John ; and he lifted up a stone to throw at it. ' Yes, 

 John ; see, see !' and as she spoke it opened it wings, and again 

 displayed its glories. It walked across the flower, turning round 

 the while. ' It is beautiful,' said John ; and he let the stone drop, 

 half ashamed. They both stood watching the butterfly for some 

 minutes, and saw it unfold its long spiral tongue to suck the honey 

 from the flower. 



" Presently another butterfly, much smaller, came to the very 

 flower on which the peacock was sitting. The peacock rose to 

 repel the intruder; but the new-comer, which was a small 

 copper, and not a fourth of the size of the original occupier of the 

 flower, was not to be easily intimidated, and fiercely gave battle. 

 ' Eh ! there's pluck for you,' said John. ' True,' said Jane ; ' I 

 wonder at the impudence of the little creature.' But the battle 

 was ended ; the peacock had gone into a neighbour's garden ; and 

 the small copper returned in triumph to the marigold, and dis- 

 played its splendid livery of burnished copper, now seen in all 

 its glory, as the sun shone brightly from behind a cloud. John 

 took more notice of butterflies after that day." 



A small matter, reader, truly ; but is there not a glow of sun- 

 shine upon it ? 



The Small Copper and the Peacock, however, beautiful as they 

 are, belong to the commonalty of the butterfly tribe, and may be 

 had almost everywhere, and without much trouble. It is just the 

 same with some others that are equally pretty, as, for example, 

 the Common Blue, and the dainty Orange Tip, not to forget the 

 showy Alderman or Pied Admiral, which, in their favourite 

 haunts, may be found in abundance throughout the country. 



Not so is it, however, with others of the number ; and great is 

 the flutter amongst the green gauze nets when the season ap- 

 proaches for any of the rarities to appear. The reader may judge 

 of the excitement that obtains amongst collectors when anything 

 particularly ** good " is to be had, by the following announcement, 

 taken just as it stands, from one of the numbers of the " Intel- 

 ligencer :" 



