124 A BUTTERFLY DUEL. 



be the gainer of the day? For once, Might and Right are 

 both upon a side, and for that reason, doubtless, Might seems 

 worsted. The combatants have risen so high that they are 



almost beyond our dazzled sight but now behold, 



descending and alone, the little blue aggressor. He has 

 driven his opponent from the aerial field as well as from his 

 honied fare, which he now returns to appropriate and discuss 

 at leisure as he resumes his seat upon the dahlia's vacant 

 velvet. The bold urchin has, however, paid forfeit for his 

 rudeness and pugnacity. When he first alighted down beside 

 the Alderman, he was a Beau Butterfly of the first water, 

 but now, his blue bravery, late so bright and glossy, all worn 

 and torn and jagged, he looks what he is, an impertinent, pil- 

 fering, quarrelsome little varlet. 



Besides the above (the Blue Argus), Mr. Knapp in his 

 " Journal of a Naturalist," notices as " contentious animals, the 

 common White Butterfly 1 of our gardens, and the small 

 Copper, 2 as quarrelsome as he is handsome, often fighting 

 even with his kindred, when he meets a fellow on a September 

 knot of China-asters." It has been noticed by the same 

 observer, that clouds seem to abate the ardour of contending 

 Butterflies, and that not unfrequently when two are engaged 

 on high, in ardent and unheeding strife, the arrival of a third 

 party in the shape of a hungry bird at once settles the differ- 

 ence of the pugnacious pair by their conversion into a flying 

 meal. But the most knowing among naturalists, as well as 

 those of other professions, are for ever differing ; and these 

 Butterfly struggles, viewed by the writer last mentioned in the 

 light of combats, have been regarded by another 3 in the more 

 pleasant one of pastime, considered merely as frolicsome 

 exuberances of the vital principle played on by the buoyant 

 air, expanded by the sunshine in their wings and bodies. 

 Neither are their buffetings considered by Mr. Rennie so rude 

 by half as they appear, and he urges against the probability of 



1 Pontia Brassiccc. 5 Lycana Phleas. 3 Rennie. 



