i8o NATURE'S STORY OF THE YEAR 



The " small skipper," a little bronze-coloured butter- 

 fly of July, is a most combative insect. In very 

 warm weather, when its senses and powers are 

 most acute and vigorous, it is quite furious, and I 

 have watched one for a quarter of an hour at a 

 time fighting with aggressors on its domain. The 

 movements of the combatants were so rapid as 

 almost to evade the sight. After each contest one 

 of the insects presumably the same one returned 

 to a particular leaf on a tangle of wild clematis to 

 sun itself. Several other butterflies are almost as 

 pugnacious as this. 



Similarly, the common flies, when sunning on 

 walls or on foliage, seem always eager to chase 

 away other passing insects, and the hoverer flies, 

 which poise themselves in mid-air over woodland 

 paths, seem to adopt that position for the sole pur- 

 pose of chasing anything else that may be flying 

 near. Their senses must be very quick, for they 

 never collide with other insects, nor strike against 

 twigs or leaves. 



Many insects, however, are possessed of faculties 

 of a higher nature than those which merely enable 

 them to avoid obstacles in the path. Butterflies, 



