Earliest Signs of Spring 



rich, dark-brown color, with the wings broadly 

 banded with yellow, and finely spotted with 

 blue. It is one of the commonest species later 

 in the year ; but the books do not speak of its 

 appearing before April, so that this was an un- 

 usually " early bird," and to be called valiant 

 or venturesome, according to our own mood. 

 Its early appearance is due to the fact that, like 

 a few other species, it hibernates in protected 

 corners and hiding-places, instead of dying in 

 the previous year, as the majority of species do, 

 soon after depositing their eggs. 



Wonderful as is the wing of the butterfly, in 

 variety and intensity of its delicate hues, still 

 more wonderful is the unique method that 

 Nature has employed to produce its ornamenta- 

 tion. For, under the microscope, the surface 

 of the wing is seen to be the verisimilitude, in 

 miniature, of a tiled roof; the tiles, in this 

 case, being minute colorless scales overlapping 

 each other, and by whose interference with the 

 rays of light along their edges, the various colors 

 are produced, precisely as in mother-of-pearl. 

 Nature is masterly, indeed, in producing the 

 tints of the rose, the lily, and the countless 

 other forms of inflorescence and of foliage. 

 Yet in all these instances she works, so to 

 269 



