broad patches of paler colour, sometimes making a bright contrast in the female, but much duller and more uniform in the male.
The female also exceeds her lord considerably in stature, and, in fact, by her side he looks rather a mean and shabby fellow.
The device on the under side of the hind wings, though composed of the plainest colours, is very ornamental; grey and brown are the prevailing hues, disposed in mottled bars and stripes, reminding one of agates, or some other ornamental stones.
This butterfly is not everywhere to be found, but haunts rocky places and hill-sides, on a chalky or limestone soil. At St. Boniface's Down, in the Isle of Wight, I noticed it in such exceeding profusion last August, that I could quickly have caught thousands, had I been so disposed.
Though a powerful-looking insect, its flight is by no means swift, and it suffers itself to be captured without difficulty.
The caterpillar is dull pinkish about the back, with three obscure grey-green stripes, a dark line on the sides, and greenish beneath. It feeds on grasses, and has been said to undergo its transformation to the chrysalis in the earth; but this point requires confirmation.
The butterfly is seen from the middle of July till the beginning of September.
The following are localities for it:—Bembridge and Ventnor (Isle of Wight), Brighton, Lewes, New Forest, Exeter, Plymouth, Falmouth, Truro, Bristol, Dorsetshire, Salisbury Plain, Winchester, Worcester, Newmarket, Gamlingay, Isle of Arran, Arthur's Seat (Edinburgh), Durham, Darlington, Glasgow, Lake District.
