174 SUMMER 



the succory now opening are of the most exquisite pale blue; 

 but they too show a declension from the downright and 

 confident blues of May and June, and a reversion to April 

 tenderness. August will bring a second and often a more 

 numerous brood of the holly blue ; and this too is a repeti- 

 tion of a spring feature, and a kind of relapse beyond the 

 days when the early summer tide ran most strongly. Most 

 of nature's blues become adulterated with purples and lilacs 

 as the year goes on ; some return to their delicate begin- 

 nings, but in one way or another the colours after the solstice 

 are changed. 



While the chalk and the flowers of the chalk have their 

 blues and marbled whites, the heaths and flagrant July 

 heather gain the lusty flapping graylings. The grayling is 

 the largest of our English browns, and has in a supreme 

 degree that casual indifference of flight which is conspicuous 

 in the large meadow browns either in fair or foul weather. 

 The grayling does not like foul weather ; he prefers the days 

 when the heat-mirage quivers over the hill, and the air from 

 the naked sand of the Long Valley streams parched across 

 his strip of Government heather. Spectator of innumerable 

 sham fights, his gift of taking cover is inherited and in- 

 communicable. He is a large and conspicuous insect as he 

 flies, but his underwings are so streaked with dark and light 

 grey that on most backgrounds of sand or stones he is one of 

 the hardest butterflies to discover. His utilisation of this 

 feature is peculiarly well marked. Orange-tips and common 

 pearl-bordered fritillaries are good examples of the way in 

 which butterflies make themselves inconspicuous at rest by 

 tucking themselves inside their chequered lower wings. The 

 grayling does this too, but does more ; he leans over till his 

 wings are almost flat on the ground, and even the erect out- 

 line of a perched butterfly is lacking. Possibly this habit 



