Beautiful Butterflies* 73 



PEACOCK BUTTERFLY. 



PLATE II. — FIG. IV. 



\APIL 10, or Vanessa Io. We have here 

 another magnificent species, on which many 

 of my readers must have often looked with 

 intense admiration, for it is common enough through- 

 out the greater part of England, especially in the more 

 southern counties ; it gets rare towards the north, and 

 in Scotland is seldom found. Old writers called this 

 Butterfly Omnium regina, that is the Latin for Queen 

 of all, and we ourselves are half inclined to rank it 

 before all others for beauty and richness of co- 

 louring. 



It is scarcely so large as the Red Admiral, seldom 

 measuring more than two inches and a half across the 

 expanded wings, which are of a rich dark brownish red, 

 the upper pair several shades lighter than the lower ; 

 at places there is an inclination towards a purple shade, 

 and a large eye, or, as naturalists call it, an ocellus, 

 from the Latin word oculus — an eye, covers a consider- 

 able portion of each of the four wings; being situated, 

 in the upper pair, near the extremities farthest from the 



