Common Snipe.
"No doubt he does it for a lark, and no doubt he thinks he does it as well as a lark, but no one seems to be sure how the noise is produced. The general opinion seems to be that it is caused by a vibration of the tail-feathers."
"Look!" cried Dick excitedly, diving into the cabin for his butterfly net. Over the marsh there fluttered one of the grandest of English butterflies, the swallow-tail. Large in size, being about four inches across the wings, which are of a pale creamy-yellow, barred and margined with blue and black, velvety in its appearance, and with a well-defined 'tail' to each of its under wings, above which is a red spot, the swallow-tail butterfly is one of the most beautiful of all butterflies. It is rare save in its head-quarters, which are the fens of Norfolk and Cambridge, and is justly considered a prize by a young collector. Frank immediately ran the yacht ashore, and Dick jumped out and rushed at the gorgeous insect with his net. Alas! he struck too wildly and missed it, and it rose in the air and flew far away, leaving Dick lamenting. Frank laughed and said,—
"Ah, you went at it too rashly. You should have given it him with more of the suaviter in modo and less of the fortiter in re. Here comes another. Let me have a try!"
Swallow-tail Butterfly.
Dick yielded up possession of the net to him, and he advanced slowly and cautiously to where the swallow-tail was sunning himself on an early tuft of meadow-sweet, which the warm weather had tempted to bloom earlier than usual, and to perfume the air with its strong fragrance on the last day of May.