The Garden in Spring 



throughout the winter with the presence of the 

 Red Admiral butterfly, and, less commonly, of 

 the Painted Lady. We constantly observe a 

 curious habit of the former. The pavement in 

 front of the house is of dark grey cobbles, with 

 a pattern of thin lines of white stones running 

 through them. Every sunny day a Red 

 Admiral will float over this, settling here and 

 there, and it is quite safe to bet ten to one that 

 it will choose a white stone to alight on. We 

 have endeavoured to acclimatize his first cousin 

 the Peacock butterfly, by introducing a con- 

 siderable number in the chrysalis stage, but so 

 far have not seen a specimen of the perfect 

 insect. With the spring comes thej lovely 

 Clouded Yellow. I am under the impression 

 that I have observed the Pale Clouded Yellow 

 (Colias Hyale)y but I can find no record of its 

 having been noticed by others. 



Birds are not very numerous in Madeira, 

 perhaps because of the prevalence of the kestrel, 

 which may be seen everywhere in town or 

 country. It will sometimes even snatch the 

 tame canaries from their reed cages as they 

 hang outside the houses. And it is to be 

 feared that, as in France, every feathered thing 



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