BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS OF THE GREEN LANES. 163 



watch its low but irregular flight you will not fail 

 to express some word of admiration. When it is 

 laying its eggs on some yellow cruciferous plant, we 

 see the benefit of the deep reddish-yellow tip at the 

 upper portion of the wings, which has given to this 

 butterfly its popular name. That ornamentation, 

 therefore, is nearly as effective as the mottled green 

 of the sides, when the insect is laying up during 

 cloudy or rainy weather on the flowers of some 

 umbelliferous plant. May and early June are the 

 times when the orange tip is most abundant, and 

 then our green lanes and daisy-decked meadows are 

 quite animated by it. As you passed along the very 

 dustiest parts of the road, you noticed a dull brown 

 butterfly that seems so tame, it allows you almost 

 to take it before making an effort to get away. 

 And when it did rise, it was to drift away a few 

 inches above the level of the road, as if it were some 

 brown leaf that was going before the wind. This 

 was the common Meadow Brown (EpinepJiele j'anira), 

 whose dusty colour, taken into consideration with 

 its habits, must be a capital protection, and a 

 reason, perhaps, why the species is so common. It 

 is especially abundant in June and July, as well as 

 August. The females select several species of grasses 

 on which to deposit their eggs, and it is on grass of 

 almost any kind that the caterpillars feed. Away 

 on the dry grass of the heath you may find a 

 kindred species, which is not quite so large, although 

 as abundant in such a place as the meadow browq 



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