96 



feed slowly for a short time, and then retire for hybernation. "With the warm 

 weather of May it comes from its retreat, and becomes full-fed by the end of 

 the month or early in June. It is seldom seen in the day, as it feeds by 

 night, when it may be easily found with the aid of a lighted lantern, or a 

 sweeping net. It remains in the chrysalis state three or four weeks. 



Hipparckia janira abounds everywhere in grassy places throughout Europe 

 except in the Polar regions, in those portions of Asia bordering on Europe, 

 and in Northern Africa. It does not occur at any great elevation above 

 the sea. 



It is the commonest of all our British butterflies, and is found everywhere, 

 except on high mountains, and the Orkneys and Shetland Isles, and perhaps 

 Caithness and some of the Hebrides. Mr. Knapp, the author of the pleasing 

 " Journal of a Naturalist," notices that it appears but little affected by the 

 diversity of seasons, being equally copious in damp and cheerless summers, as 

 in the driest and most arid ones. Indeed in 1826, which was exceedingly 

 parched, the number of these butterflies was so great as to attract the atten- 

 tion of different persons. In 1867, it was rare in the Rannoch district. 



It has a peculiar habit, in a stormy summer, of forsaking the grass at even- 

 ing, and retiring to roost amongst the branches of oaks and other trees in 

 large numbers. The following morning it returns to the grass. 



It was first described as a British species by Dr. Christopher Merrett, in 

 his "Pinax," 1667. 



Lewin, in his " Insects of Great Britain," 1795, writes "The female lays 

 her eggs, not fixing them to any particular plant, but dropping them here 

 and there on the earth. The caterpillars conceal themselves at the bottom of 

 the grass when young, and there feed ; as they advance in size, they venture 

 oat in the evening, and feed more generally. I have no doubt but this 

 cautious manner of feeding is their great protection from their enemies — the 

 ichineumon fly and birds. This will in some measure account for the smooth 

 caterpillars, and those with little hair on them, being so seldom seen, as they 

 mostly conceal themselves in the day-time. Some of the caterpillars, which 

 have grown fast, and were produced from eggs laid early in the season, change 

 to chrysalis at the end of the summer, and will sometimes appear on the 

 wing late in the autumn." 



HIPPARCHIA TITHONUS. 



Hedge Brown. 



Tithonds, liinn. Titho'nus, the husband of Aurora, the fair and beautiful 

 messenger of the approaching sun, fabled to have been transformed by her 

 into a grasshopper. 



