BUTTERFLY FLIGHT 



177 



the oak boughs and alights on the sweet bloom. The brown 

 in its wings has a redder shade ; and while the under side of 

 the other fritillaries is spotted with silver, this one is more 

 abundantly striped and splashed. The silver-washed and 

 high brown fritillaries are the largest butterflies which appear 

 at this time of year in the woodland clearings, except for the 

 peacocks and an occasional early red admiral, or the large 

 cabbage white. But 

 their season is brief; 

 and their impetuous 

 flight and their fond- 

 ness for frequenting 

 the bramble - bushes 

 that attract many other 

 insects soon destroy 

 the freshness of their 

 wings. Blundering 

 bumble-bees or imper- 

 tinent small meadow 

 browns or coppers 

 jostle them on the 

 blossom where they 

 sit ; and they dash off 

 with an indignant flight 

 that tears their wings 

 on the little hooked thorns set beneath the clusters of bloom. 

 By the end of July the silver-washed in particular is often 

 torn and shabby, for it is the fondest of the blackberry's 

 nectar. The high brown ranges more freely about the 

 sunnier copses, and sits basking on the earth coated with thin 

 grass, or on ground covered with chips and dry leaves, as 

 the newly emerged brimstones do in spring. 



On wet or overcast days in July a new small butterfly is 



FRITILLARY 



