ncilled and
blended with magic effect.

The _caterpillar_, which feeds on the common nettle, is thorny, yellowish
grey in colour, with light yellow lines on each side and black markings.

The _chrysalis_ is brownish, with gold spots.

The butterfly usually comes out in August, and may be met with till early
in October. The hybernated specimens of this are more rarely seen than
those of any of the other common _Vanessas_.

Like others of its genus, the Red Admiral is familiar, and even saucy, in
its manners, seeming to prefer the haunts of men to the solitudes that
other insects love, flaunting boldly before our face in gardens and
highways, where most we meet it.

It is found commonly all over the country.

* * * * *

{120}

THE PEACOCK BUTTERFLY. (_Vanessa Io._)

(Plate VIII. fig. 2.)

The form and markings of this species, so distinct from every other of our
butterflies, will be seen by reference to the plate; and as to its
colouring, I will not do it the injustice to attempt a description of its
rich perfection, more especially as almost every reader may hope to add the
insect to his collection during his first year's hunting, and then he can
study its beauties for himself.

The under side, however, presents a remarkable contrast to the splendour of
the reverse, being covered with shades and streaks of funereal blacks and
browns. This affords a strange effect when the insect, sitting on a flower
head, alternately opens and shuts the wings with a fanning motion,
according to its custom.

The _caterpillar_ (Plate I. fig. 6), which feeds gregariously upon the
nettle, is black, dotted with white, and thorny.

The _chrysalis_ is greenish, with gold spots.

The _butterfly_, which is common in nearly every part of England, comes out
in August and September, the individuals met with not unfrequently in the
spring having hybernated.

Mr. Doubleday writes thus to the _Zoologist_ regarding the winter retreats
of butterflies of this genus:--"Last {121} winter some large stacks of
beech faggots, which had been loosely stacked up in our forest (_Epping_)
the preceding spring, with the dead leaves adhering to them, were taken
down and carted away, and among these were many scores of _Io_, _Urticae_,
and _Polychloros_."

In Scotland this is generally a very rare butterfly, but has latterly been
abundant in Dumfriesshire and Kirkcudbrightshire.

* * * *