54 WILD BIRDS 



The butterfly is punctuated with a perfect comma, 

 one on each underside of the hind wings. The comma 

 is white, the rest of the underside of this wing dark, 

 with an obscure muddled pattern. 



The comma, says Weismann, represents a little 

 crack in the dead leaf through which the light is 

 shining. The bird is duped the butterfly escapes ! 

 That comma leaves me cold. 



I am sure that English butterflies, protected by 

 colour and mark, or unprotected, are not preyed on 

 much by birds. A sparrow blunders after a white 

 butterfly, or, now and then, a finch does so. It 

 ends .there. Butterflies a-wing are not seriously 

 attacked by birds ; I am equally sure butterflies 

 sleeping or sunning are not seriously attacked. I 

 have watched English butterflies of various kinds : 

 five of the fritillaries, three of the whites, three or 

 four of the blues, five of the skippers, the orange- 

 tip, the white admiral, four or five of the vanessae, 

 the meadow-brown, the ringlet, the two heaths, 

 the small copper, the hairstreaks (green and purple), 

 the purple emperor, and others ; and I have rarely 

 seen one of them chased in the air or caught on its 

 perch. Where the butterfly does suffer is in its 

 chrysalid and caterpillar stages of life. 



I cannot believe that all these curious, complex 

 finely-drawn patterns on the undersides of the 

 butterflies' wings are protection marks. I could 

 as soon believe that all the mystic marks and colours 

 on a chrysalid are protection from birds. 



I believe in evolution : I believe in natural selec- 



