OF HARTING. 395 



circumstances to capture, and the few living specimens 

 we ever saw, or succeeded in netting, were swept off 

 the mossy turf on which they had settled within the 

 ring fence surrounding the Tower in the Park. On all 

 these occasions, without exception, our first attempts 

 to approach their imperial majesties were discourag- 

 ingly unsuccessful. They darted off so swiftly that 

 any attempt to pursue them would have been simply 

 ridiculous, but so powerfully did they appear to be 

 attracted to the spot on which they were first seen, 

 that after several rapid evolutions round the building, 

 at such a distance that they were sometimes lost to 

 sight, they returned again and again until at last 

 they were fairly bagged. At that time we were un- 

 acquainted with the fact, which has since been well 

 ascertained, that the Purple Emperor has a decided 

 penchant for animal food in an advanced stage of 

 decomposition, but w r e have now reason to believe 

 that, in the instances here recorded, it was to this 

 weakness that he fell a victim.. Bands and spots of 

 white on a rich purple ground are the distinctive 

 markings of the male insect, the purple being sobered 

 down in the female to a homely brown. The larva, 

 which feeds on a species of sallow, is a curiously 

 shaped smooth-bodied caterpillar, tapering gradually 

 towards the posterior extremity, and furnished with 

 two inarticulate processes on the back of the head 

 like a pair of horns, it is of a lively green colour with 

 yellow diagonal stripes on the sides. 



The larva of the Painted Lady (Cynthia cardid} 

 differs from those of all the preceding butterflies in 

 the possession, along the whole of its upper surface, 

 of a formidable looking array of branched and acutely 

 pointed spines, which, however, can never be used 

 individually as offensive weapons. It is of a brown 

 colour, striped with yellow, and feeds on the thistle 

 and nettle. The pupa, like that of several other 

 butterflies, is rich with spots of burnished gold, from 



