128 THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



Brown," and " Large Heath," but the latter is more often applied 

 to another species which will be referred to later. Petiver 

 called it the " Hedge Eye." 



The general colour is brownish-orange, and the margins are 



fuscous-brown ; there is a black spot towards the tips of the 



fore wings, and this, as a rule, encloses two white dots ; one or 



both of these dots sometimes absent in the male. The male 



differs from the female in its rather smaller size, and in having 



a fuscous band on the central area ; the latter is broadest 



towards the inner margin, and in this part are some patches of 



blackish androconial scales or plumules ; at the upper end of 



the band there is sometimes a fuscous cloud. Occasionally, one 



or more small black spots, some with white pupils, are present 



below the apical one. Four such spots are rare, but specimens 



with one or with two are not uncommon. There is usually a 



white-pupilled black spot towards the anal angle of the hind 



wing, but I have several males and females that are without this 



spot. Sometimes there are as many as four spots on the hind 



wings, but this is perhaps exceptional (Plate 113, Fig. 5). On 



the under side of the hind wings there are often two white dots, 



sometimes ringed with black, towards the costa, and two or • 



three other similar dots towards the anal angle ; but the 



number of dots may be reduced to two, one of which is near the 



costa, or be increased to six. Colour changes, similar to those 



in the last species, occur, and the orange colour, in both sexes, 



may be replaced by yellow (var. mincki, Seebold), or by white 



(var. albida, Russell, Plate 119, Figs. 6, 7). Such aberrations 



are very local and rare ; a few have been obtained on chalk hills 



in South Hampshire. 



In an extraordinary aberration, taken in Sussex in 1897, the 

 whole of the dark brown colour of margins and band is 

 replaced by pale pinkish-ochreous, but the normal brownish 

 orange remains. Other somewhat similar specimens have been 

 recorded. 



