182 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



no darting strength as have the skippers, its com- 

 panions, and no floating or gliding movements on the 

 wing. It moves quickly by a larger number of smaller 

 tacks and zigzags than the slow, prosaic, meadow- 

 brown makes. 



Few things about butterflies and moths interest me 

 more than the why and whence of their colours and 

 patterns. To-day most naturalists believe that those 

 colours and patterns not given them for sexual ends 

 must be given for protection a dress that brings 

 them into harmony with, even mimicry of, their 

 environment, and so hides them from their enemies. 

 It is an attractive theory. It answers ten thousand 

 riddles of colour and pattern that otherwise baffle us. 

 I believe there must be in Nature some such design, 

 but I find myself doubting its application in many 

 cases where others seem to have never a doubt. Is 

 not the theory in danger of being done to death ? 



In autumn a little grey-brown moth called the 

 mottled-umber appears, and can often be seen far into 

 the winter. Mr. Porritt, who has studied many Engr 

 lish moths, puts mottled-umber (ffybernia defoliaria) 

 on a list of Yorkshire insects tending to become darker 

 in their wing markings. His notes on what is known 

 as melanism show a zeal for truth in little through 

 which we may, in the far-off end, discover truth in 

 great. He too has his doubts about mark and colour 

 protection in insects. But whereas mine relate chiefly 

 to butterflies, his relate to moths. 



