A WALK THROUGH AN ENGLISH LANE. 97 



the grass-tops flits the exqmsite Azure Blue, looking 

 like a little bit of sky, bedropped with stars, that has 

 come down on earth to gladden our eyes with its deli- 

 cate beauty ; and the bright Copperwing glides before 

 us in glowing refulgence, as if its wings were veritably 

 made of burnished gold. Moths, too, are not wanting, 

 for the mottled Currant Moth flutters in and out of the 

 hedge, displaying the rich cream and chestnut of its 

 plumage. The Burnet Moth comes uneasily along with 

 errant flight, pausing now and then long enough to 

 show its green velvet coat, faced and trimmed with 

 scarlet ; and the swift Humming-bird Moth, agile as its 

 feathered prototype, darts through the branches, poises 

 itself on whirring wings before a flower, plunges its long 

 proboscis into the nectary, and, taking some sudden 

 alarm, is ofl" like a lightning-flash. 



Then there are the common but very beautiful 

 tortoiseshell butterflies ; the Janira, with its rich mottled 

 brown plumage, and a host of others. If I could only 

 be allowed the whole of this book for a description 

 of a single insect, I might hope to do partial justice 

 to the subject ; but, imder the present circumstances, 

 we can only take a casual glance at each creatm-e. 

 White butterflies, of course, are flitting about every- 

 where. These may be destroyed mercilessly, or rather, 

 mercifully. For pretty and harmless as they look, 

 and as they indeed are, they are the parents of those 

 horrid black, yellow, and green caterpillars that de- 

 vastate our cabbage-gardens, and injure the temper 



