BRITISH BUTTERFLIES 



surroundings that, although we may really be looking 

 at it, we shall fail to recognize it as a butterfly. After 

 a little practice, however, the eye becomes accustomed 

 to the work required of it, and will locate the butter- 

 flies easily enough. The orange-tip delights in sun- 

 shine, and few will be seen on the wing on dull days, 

 but they may then be sought for among the blossoms. 

 If eggs or caterpillars are desired, the former may be 

 obtained by searching the flower-heads of the lady's 

 smock or of the garlic-mustard ; the latter on the 

 seed-pods of the same plants. Or a female butterfly 

 may be captured, and afterwards enclosed with a spray 

 or two of water-cress in a receptacle that admits both 

 air and sunshine. She will deposit eggs, and the cater- 

 pillars that hatch from these will feed upon the water- 

 cress if this is kept in a suitable condition, which may 

 be done by putting the stems of the cress in damp sand. 

 Both sand and food-plant will have to be renewed from 

 time to time, and if the cress can be supplied in flower 

 it will be more to the liking of the caterpillars, as well as 

 to the butterfly when she is egg-laying. 



Whether undertaken with a view to deeper study, 

 or merely as a practical life-history lesson, the ex- 

 periment of rearing a butterfly from its first stage 

 as an egg, through the subsequent forms of cater- 

 pillar and chrysalis to perfect insect, is certain to be 

 highly interesting. 



68 



