288 THE MOTH AND THE 



creature ; yet such is not always the case. Years 

 productive of the plum are said to be congenial 

 likewise to the wasp. A local rhyme will have it, 

 that 



When the plum hangs on the tree, 

 Then the wasp you're sure to see. 



Amid the tribes of insects so particularly influenced 

 by seasons, there are a few which appear little 

 affected by common events ; the brown meadow 

 butterfly ( papilio janird) , so well known to every 

 one, I have never missed in any year ; and in those 

 damp and cheerless summers when even the white 

 cabbage butterfly is scarcely to be found, this crea- 

 ture may be seen in every transient gleam, drying 

 its wings, and tripping from flower to flower with 

 animation and life, nearly the sole possessor of the 

 field and its sweets. Dry and exhausting as the 

 summer may be, yet this dusky butterfly is unin- 

 jured by it, and we see it in profusion hovering 

 about the sapless foliage. In that arid summer 

 of 1826, the abundance of these creatures, and 

 of the lady-bird (coccinella septem punctata), was 

 so obvious, as to be remarked by very indifferent 

 persons. 



There is a large yellow underwing moth (pha- 

 Icena pronubci), too, which is generally abundant. 

 It hides itself during the day in the thickest foliage, 

 and screens itself from the light in the moist grass 

 crops of the mead, where it is perpetually disturbed, 

 and roused from its rest, by the scythe of the 

 mower. That elegant little bird, the yellow wag- 



