90 



A NATURE WOOING. 



time. At last I came out, perspiring and well-nigh 

 exhausted, into an old Spanish roadway. 



Those little wood-brown butterflies, the Neonym- 

 phas, are very common to-day. N. sosybius Fab. has 

 already been mentioned. N. eurytus Fab., somewhat 

 larger, and with two eye spots circled with yellow, 



on both the upper and 

 lower surfaces of each 

 wing, is more com- 

 mon. N. gemma Hub. 

 also occurs, but spar- 

 ingly. The habits of 

 all are the same. They 

 are frail creatures of 

 the earth ever-mov- 

 ing ever-flitting close 

 to the ground in search of something, I know not 

 what. Their brown wings shield them from the 

 sight of bird and other enemy. Along woodland 

 paths, in sunny lanes, for two weeks and more they 

 have been the prevailing form of insect life. Rest, 

 they seem to know not. Perchance for an instant one 

 will pause with folded wing, and bask in the sun- 

 shine on some dry leaf; then up and away it goes, 

 ever seeking, seeking, seeking o'er the face of Mother 

 Earth. They are not gifted with living motion. 

 They are but the shadows of dead leaves, driven on- 

 ward before the breeze. So thinks, at times, the nat- 

 uralist, as he, too, basks in the sunlight and sees their 

 flitting forms go by. 



Fig. 27 Wood Nymph Butterfly. 



tfeonympha eurytu* Fab. 



