APRIL 73 



successfully. Still, it was worth noting that, when I 

 was starting from the inn at Halkirk to fish on 

 January 31, feeling something tickling the back of 

 my neck, I put up my hand and caught a tortoiseshell 

 butterfly. But the foregoing winter of 1894-5 was not 

 of a temper to spare many of these sleepers ; the marvel 

 is how even the chrysalides, suspended head downwards 

 from the tail-tip, can have resisted a temperature of 

 several degrees below zero. One would say that in 

 order to preserve unfrozen the circulatory fluid of the 

 pupa, the rind of the chrysalis must possess an extra- 

 ordinary degree of non-conductivity. 



XXXIII 



The small tortoiseshell is one of many handsome 

 insects of which the larvae feed on the stinging nettle. 

 Some of the most aristocratic caterpillars Thechoice 

 make this plant their staple diet the red of food by 

 admiral, for example, the lordly peacock, ammals 

 and the rare Camberwell beauty. One can under- 

 stand, of course, how, if the stinging difficulty be 

 overcome, the nettle affords store of wholesome food ; 

 for, gathered young and tender during this month, it 

 makes a palatable soup for men and women, and 

 provides no sorry substitute for spinach. So, also, 

 the preference of many kinds of caterpillars for a 

 succulent salad of poplar and willow leaves is quite 

 intelligible ; and there is a fitness in such delicate fare 

 as violets to nourish the infant forms of such lovely 

 insects as the dark-green and silver-washed fritillaries, 



