408 INSECTS AT HOME. 



fhen a broad black circle, and then an outer circle of white. 

 It is an extremely variable Butterfly, both in the size and 

 number of the spots ; but ninety-nine specimens out of a 

 hundred have the sixteen spots, three on each of the ujDper 

 wings and five on each of the lower wings, the latter being 

 arranged in two groups consisting of three and two spots. All 

 these Butterflies are plentiful, and can be caught without 

 difficulty in lanes or fields, their flight being sluggish, , and 

 never rising much above the ground. 



We now pass to the family of the Lycsenidse, in which are 

 included those small, but very lovely Butterflies which are 

 known by the popular name of Blues and Coppers, in allusion 

 to the prevalent tints of their wings. The latter insects are 

 seldom seen except by those who go to look for them, but the 

 former are prevalent everywhere, fluttering low over wide 

 downs, settling on wild flowers, or aiding in adorning our 

 gardens with their beautifully variegated wings. I well re- 

 collect that one of the chief pleasures of my childhood was to 

 watch for the appearance of the Blue Butterflies in our garden 

 at Oxford, a locality for which some of the species had a special 

 predilection. 



They might well frequent that garden, for I never killed but 

 one of them, and that was for the purpose of examining the 

 spots on the under surface by ihe aid of a small pocket 

 microscope — to which instrument I owe much of my attach- 

 ment to Natural History. Children have strange ideas in their 

 little heads, and in my own brain as a child was a deeply 

 rooted conviction of some affinity between the Blue Butterflies 

 and the flower of the sweet-pea. I have plenty of children of 

 mv own now, but I can never see a Blue Butterfly without 

 thinking of a clump of sweet-peas, an old garden wall, a snow- 

 berry bush, and a lattice-sided summer-house, covered with 

 vine-leaves and grape-clusters. Neither wall, bush, summer- 

 house, nor vine has now an outward existence, but they are as 

 vividly present to my memory whenever I see a Blue Butterfly 

 as they were when I was a child of six years old. 



On Woodcut XLIII. Figs. 1 and 2, is shown the rarest, 

 even if not the most beautiful, of these Butterflies, the 



