BRITISH BUTTERFLIES 



are the Large Skippers, spinning from leaf to flower on 

 wings of a kindred golden brown, but of a hue not quite 

 so rich and warm as the true Fritillary glow. With 

 the reddish and the golden brown of those sun-loving, 

 companionable wings, there comes up linked in memory 

 the whole bright yearly mosaic of the copses of flowery 

 May. Everywhere, in the herbage of the rides, still 

 richer with promise than with fruition, there shines 

 the veined turquoise blue of the self-heal or prunella, 

 and the lighter yellow spikes of dragon-mouthed cow- 

 wheat ; spotted orchises shine in the moister grassy 

 places, and tall, stripling thistles begin to push skyward 

 their tight purple knobs. On the blue and the purple 

 blossoms quiver the rich brown wings of the Skippers 

 and Fritillaries, and among them are always to be 

 seen, in the true May copses of southern England, two 

 slender-bodied Geometer moths, the cool, shining 

 Silver-ground Carpet, which seems so common as to 

 overflow into the daylight from its secret hiding-places, 

 and that welcome and delicate harlequin, the Speckled 

 Yellow, in his fancy dress of warm chocolate and 

 orange. The Grizzly and Dingy Skippers are also 

 abroad in May ; but they are hardly such thorough 

 copse-butterflies as their largest brothers, friends of the 

 early Fritillaries, and their darker colouring does not 

 combine so vividly and characteristically with the 

 bright spring flowers. 



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