THE DINGY SKIPPER 33 



PLATE XVII 

 THE DINGY SKIPPER (2) 



This little butterfly certainly deserves its name. 

 One cannot call it a pretty insect, for it is just 

 dull, dingy brown all over, with just a faint grey 

 band running across the middle of the wings. 

 So unless you look very carefully for it you are 

 not likely to see it. It does not live in woods, 

 like the "grizzled skipper," but flies about on 

 flowery chalk banks in the sunshine, first in Ma/, 

 and then again in August. And sometimes you 

 may see it in numbers in an old chalk-pit, never 

 resting on one flower for more than a very few 

 moments, but skipping about in the most active 

 way from one blossom to another. 



The caterpillar of this little butterfly feeds on 

 the bird's-foot trefoil, that low plant with yellow 

 flowers which grows so commonly on chalky 

 banks. If you should ever happen to find this 

 caterpillar you can tell it at once by its colour, 

 which is pale green, with two yellow stripes 

 running along each side of the body, and over 

 each stripe is a row of little black dots. When 

 it has finished growing it turns into a fat and 

 rather bunchy little chrysalis, which is dull green 

 in front and rosy-red behind. 



