68 WILD BIRDS 



leaf at the edge of the path nearly always the same 

 bramble bush, even the same bramble leaf ! his 

 pretty wings, brown and cream-spotted, half open 

 and half shut. He sits just where the sun and leaves 

 and breeze contrive a moving network of light and 

 shadow ; and on and off he sits thus by the hour. 



Sometimes he flits to the next ideal sun and 

 shadow spot for the speckled-wood butterfly, only a 

 few yards away, but will be back in a few minutes 

 back to the favourite leaf or the bramble bush. 



Every butterfly that passes must be chased, white 

 butterfly, fritillary, skipper, blue ; even a bumble- 

 bee lest it prove butterfly is charged. The 

 speckled-wood bears no rival on the bramble bush. 

 He owns that bush ; his mate and no other may 

 share a leaf of it with him. The speckled-wood has 

 no enemy that I can discover. No bird foe seeks this 

 little solitary. He needs no leaf mimicry on the 

 undersides of his wing ; and, stooping down and 

 looking close at him, I can see no mimicry. His 

 undersides, save for a ring or two, are inconspicuous 

 that is all, a sort of negative protection at most. 

 I have always admitted that the grayling butterfly 

 of our pine woods and chalk hills does, with wings 

 folded, resemble his environment closely ; though I 

 can find no foe for him to cheat thus. But a 

 speckled-wood butterfly is only like a speckled-wood 

 butterfly. 



