166 THE OPEN BOOK OF NATURE 
ists, you can have plenty of practice here. Why 
not visit it at least once in each week of the year, 
and make notes in your diaries of the things you 
observe each time you come ? 
Ah, another butterfly! This time a rather 
ragged Small Tortoiseshell (Vanessa urtice). Let 
it settle, so that you can get a good look at it. The 
base colour of the wings is a rich orange-red. There 
are a number of black markings on the fore-wings, 
and two very dark patches extending from the 
bases of the hind-wings. Observe also the bands 
of colour which form the margins of the wings. 
The creature is sunning itself, and slowly raising and 
lowering its wings. You can see the under sides of 
the wings are quite different in appearance. The 
orange-red of the upper sides is replaced beneath 
by a stone-colour with dark markings ; and when 
the wings are folded the butterfly is not nearly so 
conspicuous as when they are extended. TheSmall 
Tortoiseshell is one of the commonest of our butter- 
flies. Its caterpillar feeds on the Nettle. It is 
one of the creatures that can eat the leaves of the 
Nettle without being inconvenienced by its stings. 
The poet Burns says, “The best-laid schemes of 
mice and men gang aft a-gley ” (7.e., often go wrong), 
and the Nettle in scheming to protect itself against 
browsing animals, has failed to keep off the larve 
of the Small! Tortoiseshell. The specimen we have 
just examined must have hibernated, for a new 
brood is not due until late in June, and thus 
the ragged dress we noticed is accounted for. 
Somebody said to me the other day that butterflies 
lived only for twenty-four hours. That, of course, 
