98 OUT OF DOORS. 



of a hurried cook. I say mercifully killed because the 

 caterpillar must be killed before we can eat the plant ; 

 and it is surely more merciful to kill one butterfly than 

 some sixty or seventy of its future offspring. 



The handsome Scarlet Hopper comes skipping and 

 jumping so actively about the leaves that to catch it is 

 no easy matter. This pretty creature, with its scarlet 

 and black clothing, is a near relative of the insect that 

 forms the ' cuckoo spit,' so destructive to our garden 

 plants. 



Let us go a little farther down the Lane, towards 

 that patch of bare sandy ground, and find out something 

 about those bright blue flies that are dashing about it 

 so vigorously. See how they alight on the tawny soil, 

 and how fast they run over its surface ! Now we see 

 that they are not flies at all, but beetles, albeit they 

 take to flight as readily, and are as active on the wing, 

 as the blue-bottle flies, which they so closely resemble 

 while in the air. Catch one of them in the net as it 

 flies along, and examine it. What a pleasant perfume 

 issues from its body ! Surely it must have been feeding 

 on roses and verbenas. No, it is a totally carnivorous 

 insect, and rapacious to boot, and the agreeable scent is 

 part of the mystery of its nature. There is another 

 beetle, very much larger, being at least ten times its size, 

 called the Musk Beetle, which possesses a powerful rosy 

 perfume, and, curious enough, is coloured after the same 

 beautiful fashion. Our little lively friend is called the 

 Tiger Beetle ; and well does it deserve the name, for 



