46 



THE NATURE BOOK 



then thev hibernate in sheltered corners spicuous. While picking our way amidst 

 through the winter. About April the warm the watery ground, what is, presumably, 



a small White Cabbage Butter- 

 fly aj)pears to view. It alights 

 among the lady's smock flowers 

 and is seen to be moving about 

 beneath them ; it never attempts 

 to reach the opened blooms where 

 one would naturally expect to see 

 it searching for the nectar. But it 

 is not nectar this butterfly is seeking, 

 it is engaged on quite other business. 



FEMALE ORANGE-TIP 

 BUTTERFLY ON 

 FLOWERS OF 

 LADY'S SMOCK. 



sunshine tempts them 

 from their winter 

 quarters, and so we 

 hnd them nearly full- 

 grown in ]\Iay. 



Few insects have 

 sufficiently good diges- 

 tive organs to relish 

 the coarse silicious de- 

 posits in the tissues of 

 these strong grasses 

 on which the Drinker 

 Moth caterpillars feed ; 

 by cultivating this curious taste, therefore, 

 they have found for themselves a feeding 

 ground which they can enjoy comfortably 

 without being crowded by hungry com- 

 petitors. It is said of this larva that it 



FOUR ORANGE-TIP BUTTERFLIES. 



Showing how they become inconspicuous amongst the umbels of green and 



white flowers. 



When near enough to see the butterfly, 

 the first thing that strikes us is that a 

 great change has come over it. It is no 

 longer a White Cabbage Butterfl}', but 

 has become a mottled green and white, 

 will put its mouth to a dewdrop and This is due to the fact that when the 



suck it up ; hence the name " drinker." 

 I cannot verify this from personal 

 observation, but it certainly is found 

 most often in damp situations, and, 

 although it is unusual for caterpillars to 

 drink, it would not surprise me that these 



insect was flying we saw the upper side 

 of its wings, which were almost white ; 

 now that it has closed its wings over its 

 back we see the under side of the lower 

 wings. It will be well to notice, also, 

 that the butterfly has its feelers clubbed 



larvai should do so, seeing how indigestible at their ends. Now, clubbed antennae, 



their food material must be. or feelers, and wings closed over the back 



By the ditch, over which the Drinker are the two characteristic features of a 



Moth larvae are feeding, extends a piece butterfly. The antennae of moths always 



of moist land on which the pale mauve terminate in a point, and these insects 



blossoms of the lady's smock are con- usually rest with the upper sides of their 



