112 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



and the number of living objects on all hands is so great that we hardly know 

 where to begin to describe them. Flowers are conspicuous everywhere, the 

 hedges are gay with wild roses, the privet hedges are covered with white 

 clusters, the streams are adorned with the pretty blue flowers of the forget- 

 me-not, the fields are gay with red poppies and corn cockles. Later on in 

 the month the beautiful and sweet-scented water lilies will be blooming as 

 they float on the surface of river and lake, and among other flowers we shall 

 observe the wild angelica {Angelica sylvestris), and more than one kind of 

 bedstraw in blossom. Truly June is a month of flowers, and the blossoms 

 we see on all sides of us are not the least of the charms of a country walk at 

 midsummer. 



"Oh, they look beautiful in -every place, 



Through this beautiful world of ours ; 

 And dear as a smile on an old friend's face, 

 Is the smile of the bright bright flowers." 



If the flowers are plentiful on all sides in June so are the butterflies. The 

 swallow tail (Papilio machaon), the local black- veined white (Pieris cratcegi), 

 the small heath {Chortobius pamphilus) , the white admiral {Limenitis sihilla), 

 the tortoiseshell {Vanessa urticce), the pearl bordered fritillary {Argynnis 

 Euphrosyne), and several others are all out now. 



Our ramble shall be this time to the woods. As we walk along we see a 

 flock of dark coloured birds in a field where the hay makers have been at 

 work. They are starlings, as we can easily perceive through our field glass. 

 There is nothing very peculiar in their flocking together thus, as they are 

 very fond of congregating at all times. Those birds darting about high up 

 in the air are swifts. I often think we owe our comparative immunity from 

 such blood-sucking diptera, as occur in many other countries, to the abund- 

 ance of swallows, martens, and swifts, among us in summer time. How- 

 ever that may be, it is a pretty sight to see the hirundines skimming along 

 after gnats and other insects, and their confiding ways and fondness for man's 

 society, make them universal favourites. 



Here are some beetles, enjoying the rays of the fast sinking sun, as they 

 sit on these cowparsnip flowers. They are known as Strangalia amata. 

 Their elytra you see are yellow, with violet markings at the end; the head 

 and thorax are violet. Many species of coleoptera may be found now, and 

 if we sweep the herbage we shall obtain many species such as Chrysomela 

 poliia, C. staphylcea, Phyllobius oblongus, and other of the genus, together 

 with numbers of others which I cannot stay to mention now. 



Hawthorn blossoms shelter a large number of minute species. The most 

 numerous of these is Homalium florale> and other kinds will be found men- 



