THROUGH THE YEAR 145 



stage, a stage of a deep sleeper aroused ; next; in 

 June, the birth of the new sulphur from the chrysa- 

 lid the " antenatal tomb," as Shelley named it ; 

 finally, in September, the late summer hatch of 

 the sulphurs, feeding upon sweetmeats from the 

 wild basil and other dying flowers of summer against 

 the long winter sleep. Thus the sulphur, like 

 the common blue butterfly, repeats itself through 

 the season, but the first of the several phases of the 

 common blue is not that of the sleeper aroused, 

 for no blue butterfly hibernates in the perfect or 

 winged state. After the first phase of the sulphurs 

 and of the small tortoiseshell butterfly comes the 

 first new butterfly, the first actually hatched out 

 in the year ; this is the little azure or holly blue 

 holly because its caterpillar feeds on the plant, 

 azure because it is sky-tinted. This blue is always 

 the earliest of our butterflies to hatch from a chry- 

 salid that has lain through the winter, though some 

 say the orange-tip and the cabbage whites are as 

 early as the azure. I know I find the azure some- 

 times in April, numbed by icy showers, whereas 

 rarely does the orange-tip appear till May. 



Here, then, are three signal events in the early 

 part of the year of English butterflies the awak- 

 ened sulphurs and small tortoiseshells, the hatch 

 of the azure blue, the hatch of the orange-tip. The 

 third of these has long been for me the best event 

 in the butterfly year. The orange-tip seems to pick 

 its day in May or early June with unerring nicety. 

 Orange-tip day is the perfection of English weather 



