16 BUTTERFLIES 



PLATE VIII 

 THE PURPLE HAIR-STREAK (2) 



This is the commonest of the Hair-streak butter- 

 flies, for there is scarcely a wood in which oak- 

 trees grow in which you may not find it. But it 

 is quite easy to walk through a wood without 

 seeing it, for it nearly always flies at some little 

 height from the ground. And besides this it is 

 very fond of sitting on leaves and basking in the 

 sun, not moving for some little time unless it is 

 disturbed. The male is much handsomer than 

 the female, for the whole upper surface of the 

 wings, except just the margin, is of the richest 

 possible purple, which seems to shine and glisten 

 in the light, while in his mate there is only a 

 purple blotch in the middle of the wings. 



The caterpillar of this butterfly is a most odd 

 little creature, and really looks much more like 

 a little fat slug. It is reddish-brown in colour, 

 with a number of black marks upon its back. You 

 may sometimes find it clinging to oak leaves, on 

 which it feeds. When it is fully grown it gener- 

 ally descends to the ground, buries itself just 

 below the surface, and turns into a fat little 

 brown chrysalis, from which the butterfly appears 

 in July. 



