THE RAILWAY EMBANKMENT 



which only pass muster as butterflies because they have, 

 for hall-mark, the club at the tip of the antennae or 

 horn, which no moth can show. The Bedford blue 

 is not brightly coloured like several of 1 his larger rela- 

 tives has just a little dust of blue on a brownish 

 ground, and his wings on the under-side are ash grey 

 with a thought of blue about them. But they are cut 

 to a dainty shape, and fringed with white or grey 

 I cannot make up my mind which, watching him sun- 

 ning himself on a grass blade. 



Nimble on the wing, alert, so spruce in his whole 

 turnout, this blue is a fascinating little thing to see. 

 I have not yet found him on his bed, but I suspect he 

 sleeps, like the common blue, head downward and upper 

 wings laid back so that only the tips show above the 

 under wings. Probably he assimilates with environ- 

 ment then more closely than the common blue, Alexis, 

 or is less noticeable not only through his smaller figure, 

 but through the spots held in tiny rings on the under- 

 side being less striking than those of his big cousin. 



39 



