144 WILD BIRDS 



and day-flying moths. A friend wrote to me asking 

 had I ever heard of butterflies being kept as pets ? 

 She had a friend who delighted in " a flock of them 

 kept in a large glass cage. She taught them to 

 alight on her ringer, which she first dipped in sugar 

 and then held in the cage." It is easy to believe 

 in tamed butterflies. I have stroked humming 

 bird hawk moths on the wing ; I found this easy one 

 summer at Spring vale, in the Isle of Wight, when 

 large numbers of these insects spun round the 

 fuchsias 



"The poised moths thy hand caressed, 

 Sip they not wines from fuchsias by the sea ? " 



I have stroked too, without alarming, such wary 

 butterflies as the silver-washed fritillary and the 

 red admiral. Some of the smaller butterflies are 

 harder to touch, move one never so softly ; I tried 

 in vain in June to touch the little butterfly styled 

 Duke of Burgundy fritillary*. I fancy, however, 

 it only wants patience and constant practice to 

 disarm the suspicions of most of the butterflies, even 

 in the full light of the sun, when they are widest 

 awake ; if the sun is hid by heavy cloud, and it is 

 cold or wet, one can touch any butterfly, for the 

 heavy drug of sleep is on it. 



The butterfly year opened in March with the awak- 

 ened brimstone butterfly. There are three phases 

 of the sulphur : first the March and early April 



* But, since writing this, I have had the butterfly settle 

 on my coat by the river, and I have touched him easily 

 whilst the sun has been hid by clouds, 



