146 WILD BIRDS 



made by shower and shine. It comes from the chry- 

 salid on about the freshest, most delicious days in 

 the year ; and, on the very day it comes, the two 

 pearl-bordered fritillaries appear in the coppices. 

 Now and then one of these graceful little butterflies 

 will appear much later in the year I saw one on 

 the Deeside moors in Scotland so late as mid- July 

 one year but the close of May is its true season ; 

 and the season too of the green hairstreak and the 

 Duke of Burgundy fritillary in our South country 

 coppices. 



Later in July come most of the butterflies, 

 the larger fritillaries and the white admiral, the blues 

 (other than the azure), the meadow brown, the 

 large heath, the small copper, and the purple em- 

 peror. Then, towards the close of summer, come 

 the Vanessse butterflies peacocks and painted 

 ladies and commas and large tortoiseshells ; with 

 the red admiral largely kept back for early autumn. 



I have rarely watched any kind of English 

 butterfly with care for even a day or two in the 

 season without noticing something in its way of life 

 that was new to me something not in books. 

 Indeed, very little is as yet in the books on butter- 

 flies save lists of the plants the caterpillars feed on 

 and of the places where they may be seen. I could 

 never find a word about their habits of turning their 

 backs to the sun when they settle. It is a set habit 

 with many kinds, if not with all, that sun them- 

 selves much. I made out a little list of those I had 

 seen turning their backs thus while sunning on leaf 



