THE BRIMSTONE BUTTERFLY. 119 



spring, unless allured by the wintry sunshine to pay us a few 

 unseasonable, but ever welcome, visits. Among these, the 

 little " Tortoise-shell," and the beautiful " Peacock," of whom 

 more by and bye, are the intrepid pair which most often 

 gladden and surprise us in the time of yellow aconites and 

 Christmas roses ; but after these, we may be on the watch, 

 towards the end of February, or on the first gentle mornings 

 of early March, for a flutterer more welcome still, as the 

 herald of a real and no fictitious spring. This is the " Brim- 

 stone Butterfly,"* which, gaily painted, 



" Soon 



Explores awhile the tepid noon, 

 And fondly trusts its tender dyes 

 To fickle suns and flattering skies." 



It has been supposed by some that this early visitant (also 

 a late one) is, like the above, a winter survivor ; but from the 

 trim of his yellow robes, usually so fresh and glossy, it would 

 seem more likely that, instead of being laid up not ".in 

 lavender," but, perhaps, in ivy they are of the newest spring 

 fashion. Be this as it may, he is the very pink, or, as he has 

 been more properly considered, the very primrose of Papil- 

 lons, sometimes to be seen, like a living shadow of the prim- 

 rose's self, fluttering beside it in the sunny hedge-row or the 

 sheltered copse. We may know him by the cut of his bright 

 sulphur-coloured pinions each, instead of being rounded, 

 ending in a smooth tail-like angle, f 



* Gonopterix Ramni. 



t For figures of nearly all the Butterflies here mentioned, see Vignette, or Frontis- 

 piece to vol. i. 



