250 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



even on a green one of the same year, it appears then to be protected by 

 mimicry. It imitates the little heads of the plants of Plantago lanceolate 

 which are blooming around it. It rests, equally well-protected also r 

 in dull weather, when it sits, with its wings carefully folded together, 

 on a tuft of heather, or on the pale-coloured remains of the previous 

 year's flower-heads in the grassy woodland roads, and the coloration 

 of the underside of the wings is in sympathy with these resting-spots." 

 Bird also notes [in litt.) that, in Sussex, when settling down for the 

 night, he also observed that the species was especially fond of choosing 

 the old seed-heads of Plantago lanceolate on which to rest, the spotted 

 markings on the underside of the butterfly giving to the withered spike 

 a remarkable likeness to the fresh inflorescence of the plant. Chap- 

 man, observing the species at Ste. Maxime-sur-Mer, notes (in litt.) : 

 " H. malvae is very difficult to follow with the eye when on the wing, 

 especially if it be at all alarmed. It does not return to a particular 

 spot with much frequency, and, if at all alarmed, it need not be 

 expected there again. It flies very straight forward, but, before 

 alighting, often makes a little circle. It frequents paths and roads, 

 especially in or near a wood, and will often alight on the middle of 

 the path, its habits, in this respect, being very similar to those of 

 Melitaea cinxia. When it settles it at once orients itself, tail to the 

 sun, and sits quietly, with its wings slightly raised, so as to form a 

 cup or valley to catch the sunshine. It flies rather close to the ground, 

 but not so closely as M. cinxia does when flying along a road. The 

 latter, however, rests just like H. malvae, tail to the sun, and wings 

 slightly raised." Blachier observes that, in the neighbourhood of 

 Geneva, it settles freely, in numbers, on the damp spots in roadways, 

 etc., and remains a long time in the same place, in company with 

 other Hesperiids, e.g., Hesperia alveus, H. serratulae, Powellia sao, and 

 Lycasnids, e.g., Cupitlo minima, C. sebrus, Polyvmmatu* icani.s, Xoviiacle* 

 cyllams, and N. semiargns. 



Habitat.— The species is not particular in its choice of habitat, 

 frequenting rough open places in, and the ridings of, woods, commons, 

 banks, meadows, and even marshland and fens, where brambles grow 

 freely. Wilkes says that it frequents woods and meadows; Lewin 

 mentions the dry parts of woods and heaths ; Haworth, pastures ; Curtis, 

 meadows, commons and woods; to which Stephens adds that it occurs 

 in the fens of Cambridge plentifully. Mathew says that it frequents a 

 marshy piece of ground on a hillside near Instow ; Clifford, marshy 

 places at Wimbledon; and Sheldon, a marsh near Vernayaz; but the 

 woodlands are its chief haunts — the ridings of woods and adjacent 

 lanes at Silchester (Rothschild) ; a clearing by the edge of a beech- 

 wood, between Penn and High Wycombe (Swain) ; common in woods 

 in East Sussex (Jenner); occurs chiefly on rough pastures, on the out- 

 skirts of woods, in Hunts and Essex, and when disturbed sometimes 

 disapppears over the woods, being, in this respect, similar to Cyclopides 

 palacmon, but unlike Nisoniades tayes, which never seems to leave the 

 level meadows (Raynor); common in the upland woods of the Cotswolds r 

 rarely occurring in the vales (Watkins) ; frequenting open grassy places 

 in the woodlands of the Cotswolds (Davis); generally common on railway- 

 banks and cuttings, also on hills, and in woods, at Hereford (Bowell) ; 

 on sloping banks near the sea beyond Castle R\an (Gordon); in a 

 grassy hollow near Bude, an uncultivated field at Drayton Beauchamp r 



