THE YOUNG NATUKALIST. 



147 



The Purple Hair-streak butterfly has been already mentioned. Besides 

 Thecla quercus two others of the genus make their appearance now, namely, 

 the Dark Hair-streak {Thecla pruni) and the Black Hair-streak {Thecla 

 W-album), and besides these some of " The beautiful blue butterflies" come 

 out in July. These are the Mazarine blue {Polyommatus acis), the Large 

 blue {Polyommatus arionj both alas ! getting scarcer, and the Silver-studded 

 Blue. At the end of the month these are joined by the Chalk-hill blue 

 {Polyommatus corydon) and the second brood of the Common blue {Polyom- 

 malus Icarus or Alexis) which we see fluttering about until far into autumn. 

 With the mention of these and the Small Skipper {Pampkila linea), which 

 also comes out now and may be seen almost everywhere flying jerky manner 

 so characteristic of the genus, I will leave the subject of the butterflies of 

 this month. 



I have spoken of the delights of a walk through the woods at midsummer. 

 How pleasant too is a ramble by the side of a purling brook or deep-flowing 

 river where the dragon flies are darting about in the sunshine — the brown 

 JEschnia cyanea with the abdomen spotted with green and blue and two large 

 yellowish-green spots on the thorax, the sides of which, moreover, are of the 

 same greenish hue; the black JEschnia juncea or the red-brown jEschnia 

 grandis and other species which I cannot now stay to mention. There are 

 pretty sure to be some willow trees on the banks of the stream along which 

 we are walking in imagination ; suppose we search on their trunks for the 

 larvse of Catocala nupta. The best way to find them is to draw the fingers 

 down the bark of the tree and feel for them. They may be readily felt with 

 the tip of the fingers, whereas by trusting to the eyes alone it is very possible 

 to overlook them, as their colour is so very inconspicuous. Ah ! here we 

 have one, the contrast between the feel of the hard rough bark and its soft 

 body readily revealed its whereabouts, and we tenderly remove it from the 

 crevice in which it was ensconsced. "Now we have it out we see it is greenish 

 grey in colour, and there are slight rosy protuberances across the last seven 

 segments, and it has also a double wavy line of a whitish colour on the back. 

 It is a full grown specimen and will almost certainly pupate in a day or two ; 

 indeed it is useless looking for these larvse later than the beginning of July. 

 Were our ramble taken about three weeks later we might by good luck see 

 the gray coloured moth to which it turns, at rest on a willow or a poplar tree. 

 It is of course needless to tell my readers that the moth is only a grey one 

 when its wings are closed as it sits in repose, and the beautiful crimson 

 hind ones are hidden by the more sober-hued fore wings. This is the com- 

 monest of the Red Underwing moths, and any young naturalist may expect 

 to meet with it in the southern counties. 



