8 BUTTERFLIES 



colour, with yellow stripes down the back and 

 sides. If you want to find it, you should look 

 for it in June. And when it is fully fed it turns 

 into a brown and grey chrysalis, marked with a 

 number of silver spots. The butterfly comes out in 

 August, and lives till the following May. 



PLATE IV 

 THE MARBLED WHITE (2) 



Although its colours are only glossy black and 

 creamy-white, this is one of the prettiest of all our 

 British butterflies. But it is quite possible to live 

 all one's life in the country without ever seeing 

 it, because it is so very "local." In one field, 

 perhaps, or on one little patch of ground on a 

 grassy hillside, it may be very common indeed, 

 and you may often see fifteen or twenty of the 

 graceful little insects flying about together. And 

 yet you may hunt for miles and miles in every 

 direction, and not see a single one anywhere else. 



If you ever happen to find the caterpillar of this 

 butterfly, you can recognise it at once by its 

 colouring, for it has a pale green body with a 

 yellow stripe running along each side, and a 

 reddish head. And besides this there are two 

 reddish spikes at the end of the body, forming a 

 sort of projecting tail. It feeds on different kinds 

 of grasses in September, and then again, after its 



