VI 

 PE^ARL SKIPPERS 



"The fly buzz'd up in the heat." 



PUNCTUAL almost to a day I found my lovely little 

 pearl skippers at their prime on the hillside where I 

 watched them last August. Roughly, pearl skipper is 

 large skipper, plus a set of natty, four-sided figures 

 tessellated work, that are imprinted on the upper and 

 under sides of his wings. These light-coloured marks 

 had the naming of the butterfly been mine, I should 

 not have suggested pearls are his chief distinction, 

 but I fancy he also differs slightly from the large skip- 

 per in size and in one or two finer details. I have only 

 seen him alive so alive too ! on his native down ; 

 never in the cork-lined box, nor wish to ; and he is 

 not very easy to get quite close to ; but, judging by 

 what I have seen of him on a blossom about a yard off, 

 his horns are not ringed with white, and he wants the 

 faint flush of purple on the lower wings which his 

 cousin has. 



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