MEADOW BROWN LARGE HEATH. 75 



Tliis is the sober brown insect that keeps up a con- 

 stant fluttering, in sunshine and gloom, over the dry 

 pasture land and barren hill -side; and perhaps it ought 

 to find favour in our eyes, from this very fact of keeping 

 up a cheerful spirit under circumstances the most unfa- 

 vourable to butterfly enjoyment in general. 



The colouring of the male, on the upper side, may be 

 described as a sooty brown, rather lighter about the 

 eye-spot on the front wing. 



The female is a little smarter in her attire, having an 

 orange-tawny patch on the front wing. 



Beneath, both sexes are nearly alike ; the general 

 colour of the front wing being fulvous, or orange-brown, 

 with a cool-brown margin. The hind wings are marked 

 with tints of a duller brown, varying much in distinct- 

 ness in different specimens. 



The caterpillar is green, with a white stripe on each 

 side. Feeds on grasses. 



The butterfly abounds almost everywhere, from June 

 till the end of August. 



THE LAEGE HEATH BUTTERFLY. 

 (Hipparchia Tithonus.) (Plate VL fig. 2, Male.) 



THOUGH much less abundant than the last, this is 

 another very common species, and met with throughout 

 England and the south of Scotland. 



The ground tint above is a rich rust-colour, or orange- 

 brown, bordered with dark-brown; the base of the wings 

 also slightly clouded with the same ; and on each front 

 wing, near the tip, there is a black eye-spot, with two 

 white dots. So far, both sexes are similar; but the 

 male has, in addition, a bar of dark-brown across the 

 centre of the rust-coloured space, on the upper wing. 

 This sex is that figured on the plate. 



Underneath, there is a pretty arrangement of sub- 

 dued colouring ; that of the front wings nearly resem- 



