82 SHARP EYES 



wings, each with its red eye- spot and long tail. We 

 have caught him in the meadow, we have found his 

 gray chrysalis hanging under the clapboards, and have 

 wished for a few more pairs of hands as we gath- 

 ered the black-banded, gold-spotted, green caterpillars 

 among the garden beds of parsley and carrot. We will 

 say nothing of those yellow horns which he keeps so 

 carefully concealed, and which he will display upon 

 slight provocation, though, if he only knew it, he ap- 

 pears to much better advantage without this peculiar 

 head-dress. 



But while we knew our butterfly all our lives, capt- 

 ured him, mounted him, and with learned label, " Pa- 

 pilio Asterias" stowed him in our cabinet in the com- 

 fortable conceit that there was little else to be known 

 about him, how few of us have thought of what a rare 

 lesson in botany this Asterias has been wasting on us 

 all these years? 



In a previous volume* I have devoted a chapter to 

 the botanical instincts among butterflies as seen in their 

 selection of food plants for their young, and this Aste- 

 rias is one of the most remarkable examples. Under 

 his guidance during a single day we may learn a sur- 

 prising lesson in botany. 



We have too long thought only of the " idle butter- 

 fly " of the poet as the type of charming heedlessness, 

 the " gay idler "- 



"The sportive rover of the meadows 



Kissing all buds that are pretty and sweet," 



and sipping honey in " quiet ecstasy." 



* Strolls by Starlight and Sunshine. 



