BRITISH BUTTERFLIES 



beauty of their colouring, which is by no means always 

 greater than that of the moths, or than the absence 

 from among their number of that dim and multitudin- 

 ous fringe of mote-like life which confuses the moth- 

 world with the shadow of specific infinity, it is this 

 brilliant vitality, this natural citizenship of the sun, 

 which marks out butterflies among insects with a 

 supreme attraction and charm. 



When the first day comes in March when the air 

 is quick with awakening life, and the earth drinks 

 deep of new, hot, golden splendour from a sun now 

 high in heaven, the seal is set on returning spring 

 by the great yellow wings of the Brimstone butterfly, 

 purposefully beating down the rides and lanes like 

 a visible concentration of the light. With him, or 

 even before him, in the illusory brightness of some 

 halcyon winter noon, there appear three or four other 

 species of a different family, of which the character- 

 istic predominant colour is deep and brilliant red. 

 The commonest of these early spring butterflies are 

 the Small Tortoiseshell, the Peacock with his rich 

 eye-pattern, and the Brimstones, male and female, 

 in their brilliant yellow and delicate primrose-green. 

 Scarcer but still regular pioneers of spring are the 

 Large Tortoiseshell, which has a tawnier dash in its 

 red, and the strangely fretted Comma, with its out- 

 line like a jagged shell. These, with three or four 



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