162 HALF-HOURS IN THE GREEN LANES. 



than fifty species of insects feed on it ! Like some 

 other of our common butterflies we have mentioned, 

 the peacock hybernates during the winter, having 

 quitted the chrysalis state the previous July or 

 August, and continued single till the coming 

 spring. Hence you may see full-grown individuals 

 nearly all the year round. The Eed Admiral (Pyra- 

 m&is atalanta) frisks about in its fresh beauty 

 during September and October, settling on sunny 

 banks, gravel heaps, and roads, and opening and 

 shutting its bright marbled white and red wings, 

 like the peacock. This butterfly also lays up during 

 the winter, and is turned out by the warmer days 

 of spring to the great and important task of per- 

 petuating its kind. Not unfrequently, you may take 

 the red admiral by night, when "sugaring" for 

 moths. Allied to it is a less common butterfly, the 

 Painted Lady (Pyrameis cardui), with colours less 

 vivid, but richer and softer in combination. The 

 common field thistle is resorted to for egg-laying, 

 and it may be that this obnoxious plant, as well as 

 the nettle, are selected on account of their prick- 

 ing or stinging properties being a protection to 

 caterpillars, that would undoubtedly suffer if they 

 fed on a less offensive weed. 



In those parts of our lanes that are greenest, 

 where the turf presses under one's feet like velvet, 

 we may see another tolerably common butterfly, the 

 Orange Tip (Anthocaris cardamines). We have 

 already alluded to its markings in Fig. 110. If JOT? 



