BRITISH BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 



richly decorated on all four wings with prominent eye- 

 spots, Hkened to the display feathers (not the tail) of the 

 Peacock Bird. When the wings are extended, and then 

 suddenly closed, the effect is quite startHng, the change 

 from high colouration to sombre hue being so pronounced. 

 The outer margins of the wings have deckled edges. 

 Another handsome member of the Vanessas is the 

 Camberwell Beauty, but it is a red-letter day when a 

 specimen is encountered, and we must now proceed to 

 describe the next species upon our list in the person of 

 the Painted Lady. 



Painted Lady. — {Pyratneis cardui.) Belonging to an- 

 other genus, this migratory species (see Frontispiece), 

 is one of the gayest of our butterflies, and in a good year 

 provides the country lover with a continuous feast of 

 delight. I have watched as many as fifty at a time 

 careering over the pyramids of sainfoin blossom within a 

 stone's throw of my Garden City home, and counted it a 

 privilege to live in such an arcadian wilderness. Strictly 

 speaking, the Painted Lady is a native of a warmer and 

 sunnier cUme, but it flourishes in its own home to such 

 an extent that it must needs seek " fields and pastures 

 new." To our own little treasure island it comes all 

 the way from Northern Africa, and wherever it goes its 

 chief anxiety is to perpetuate its race. And there is 

 no restricted period as to this, so long as conditions are 

 suitable for it to carry on. It flashes past one on a 

 Summer's day like a living jewel, its freckled wings 

 glowing in the noonday sun, and infusing the gay cavaUer 

 (if Painted Ladies can thus be called), with Ught and life. 



On, on she goes, now here, now there, fit subject for 

 16 



