396 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



which character the term chrysalis was, in the early 

 days of entomology, applied to the pupae of all butter- 

 flies indiscriminately, and collectors were known as 

 aurelians. We have found the perfect insect generally 

 distributed, but not common. _ 



The rich velvety black and brilliant scarlet on the 

 upper surface of the wings of the Red Admiral 

 ( Vanessa atalanta], delicately relieved near the margin 

 with spots of white and blue, make this one of our 

 most gorgeous insects, the underside of the wings, 

 though less striking, is also exquisitely beautiful, and 

 few more charming scenes greet us late in the autumn, 

 than a number of these magnificent butterflies feeding^ 

 as we have seen them year after year, on the fallen 

 fruit in the gardens, or rifling the sweets of the ivy 

 blossoms in the shrubbery, and leisurely displaying 

 the two surfaces of their wings alternately in the 

 bright sunshine. While thus engaged, they are as 

 fearless as they are beautiful, and we have on several 

 occasions gently taken up a few of them by their 

 closed wings and set them at liberty again, when they 

 have at once returned to their feast, as if determined 

 at all risks to enjoy the abundance set before them, 

 all the more precious from the fact that the chilling 

 fogs of November were so near at hand. The cater- 

 pillar is thorny, like that of the last species, feeds on 

 the nettle, and changes to a gold-spotted chrysalis in 

 August. 



The Peacock Butterfly ( Vanessa Io\ so called from 

 the resemblance of the four conspicuous spots on the 

 upper surface of its wings to the " eyes " in the train 

 of the peacock, is common and generally distributed. 

 It makes its appearance on wing sometimes very early 

 in the season, after its hybernation we have seen it 

 in March, but the caterpillar, which is gregarious, 

 spiny, black, dotted with white, and feeds on the 

 nettle, does not assume the perfect form before the 

 end of summer or the beginning of autumn. 



