PURPLE EMPEROR 





BUTTERFLY FLIGHT 



IN July the woods and downs still keep much of the 

 freshness of midsummer among their flowers and verdure, 

 although the garnished hay-crop has fallen, or is fast falling, 

 and the foliage of the forest trees has caught a deep bronzed 

 green from the sun. As earlier and later in the year, the 

 butterflies are in harmony with their time. July has no 

 species so exquisitely tinged with kindling freshness as the 

 orange-tip of May ; but the deep red and sepia of the 

 peacocks and red admirals of the August and September 

 gardens would be even more untrue to its mature but still 

 sanguine richness. Now the purple emperor sails in the high 

 sun of the dog-days round the oaks in the heart of the 

 woods, and the pure white stripes of the white admiral 

 flicker in the shadows arched with honeysuckle. There is 

 no hint of deepening autumn languor in the motion or 

 the colour of those beautiful wings as there is in the Van- 

 essae of early autumn ; and if the orange-tips have vanished 

 with the cuckoo-flowers, the marbled whites with their cool 

 chequered wings of milk-white and umber come forth for the 

 first time, and float about the yellow fennel-heads by the 

 paths on the downs and wolds. 



The flight of the male purple emperors round their chosen 

 M 



