Hillside. 125 



nacious Small Heath butterfly attacks its larger relation, the 

 Meadow-brown, while the delicately tinted Chalk-hill Blue 

 and its very dingy brown mate are harassed by the 

 attentions of the nimble Brown Argus butterflies. Hark ! 

 There is the merle singing his rich clear notes, whilst ever 

 and anon the sweet whistle of the mavis sounds just behind 

 us ; we recognise, too, the soft warbling of the blackcap and 

 the whitethroat, and there is a bullfinch piping in yonder 

 thicket below. Look at the swallows as they circle and eddy 

 above and around us. Past they go like a flash, now wheel- 



FIG. 23. THE SMALL TORTOISE-SHELL BuTTERFLY(Fanma urticce). 



ing high up in the air, then suddenly descending, they skim 

 rapidly along, close to the ground. A Tortoiseshell butter- 

 fly that has been hanging like a dead leaf from yonder flower 

 of scabious, lazily rises on the wing to fly to a neighbouring 

 flower. A sudden downward rush and the wings fall at our 

 feet, whilst the body of the butterfly has formed a meal for 

 an ever-hungry swallow. A Chalk-hill Blue flits merrily 

 along, another downward rush, and that, too, disappears 

 suddenly like the other. Now that we are on the look-out 

 for these birds we notice what splendid hawkers they are. 

 But it is the most conspicuous insects that are captured ; the 



