THROUGH THE YEAR 53 



This list of four continents is formidable, but as to 

 English butterflies, I have watched for years without 

 finding for them a dangerous foe. In seasons 

 when insect food is very scarce, butterflies may be 

 somewhat preyed on by several kinds of birds ; 

 but, taking one year with another, English birds 

 trouble little about butterflies. They feed on cater- 

 pillars, the eggs perhaps, and the chrysalids of butter- 

 flies and moths ; but the perfect insect or imago of 

 the butterfly is chased and caught by only a very 

 few birds. Nor is the butterfly at rest or roost on 

 its leaf or grass stem often touched by any bird. 

 I have watched for years, but have never seen one 

 blue butterfly, one copper, one small heath swept 

 off its grasshead or bent by a bird, though all these 

 will be put on the list of insects whose wings on the 

 undersides are protectively coloured or marked. 

 The butterflies that sleep on grassheads, bents, and 

 tall, slender plants are, indeed, very unlikely to be 

 attacked by any English insect-eating bird. It 

 would be hard for a bird to get hold of them in these 

 perches ; nor are they in such numbers that it 

 would be worth the bird's while to hunt for them 

 there. 



Of the sleeping-places of a good many English 

 butterflies nothing is known. Where does the 

 comma butterfly sleep ? Weismann says it mimics 

 a dead leaf that it may cheat its watchful bird 

 foes. On the underside of the comma's strange 

 notched wing is a little mark, which gives the 

 butterfly its name. I have just been looking at it. 



