158 
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS. 
CHAPTER XVII. 
Insecta (Insects). 
Continued. 
How delightful is the season, when the Butterflies begin 
to spangle the fields and woodlands ! Welcome visitants 
they always are, in their airy grace and beauty ; not less 
welcome than the flowers on which they alight, and whose 
brilliant hues and delicate petals are rivalled by their 
painted and filmy wings. 
“ The Butterflies are come I” Yes, it sends a thrill of 
pleasure through the heart, after the long dreary winter, 
to see the first Butterfly of the season sailing on its broad 
sylphic pinions in the warm beams of a calm April morn- 
ing. Perhaps it is the pretty little Orange-tip (Manci- 
pium cardamines ), that attendant on early spring, coursing 
along some rural lane , or the Brimstone (Gonepteryx 
rharnni ), hovering over a perfumed cluster of primroses, 
itself scarcely to be distinguished from one of them. 
Perhaps it is the Admiral ( Vanessa Atalanta), whose fine 
scarlet bands afford so rich a contrast to its black velvet 
wings ; or the Peacock ( V. Io), with its gorgeous violet 
eyes ■ or the Tortoise-shell (V. urlicce ), clouded with yel- 
