The eggs are laid in July on various grasses, on which the young caterpillars feed from about the middle of August till the cold weather sets in. They hybernate at the roots of the grasses till the beginning of the following May, and change to the chrysalis state about the middle of June, suspending themselves to grass blades by means of their anal hooks. The colour of the caterpillar is dull green or brown, and is marked with five longitudinal stripes much like those of the Large Heath. The chrysalis is pale brown, spotted and striped with a darker shade of the same colour. _The Marsh Ringlet_ (_Caenonympha Typhon_) The upper surface of this butterfly is shown in the first figure of Plate VI, and the under side in the accompanying woodcut; but it must be remembered that the species is a very variable one, so much so that it is almost impossible to give anything like a short and, at the same time, a satisfactory description. The female may usually be distinguished by a pale patch across the middle of the fore wings; and the eye spots of the same wings, always more or less indistinct when present, are sometimes entirely wanting. The markings of the under side are even more variable, the transverse bars and the eye spots being often particularly conspicuous, and at other times hardly discernible. [Illustration: FIG. 82.--THE MARSH RINGLET--UNDER SIDE.] This is generally spoken of as a northerner, its chief localities being in the mountainous parts of Scotland and the elevated districts of the north of England, but in Ireland it extends to the southern ranges. Its haunts are elevated moors and marshy heaths, where its food plant--the beak-rush (_Rhyncospora alba_)--abounds, and it is on the wing from the end of June to August or September. The caterpillar is green, with five longitudinal stripes--one dark one, bordered with yellow, down the middle of the back, and two pale yellow ones on each side. It is a hybernator, and is full grown about the end of May, when it suspends itself by the hindmost claspers to a silken carpet, and changes to a green chrysalis with pale brown wing cases. _The Small Heath_ (_Caenonympha Pamphilus_) The last member of the family _Satyridae_ is the well-known Small Heath, that may be seen almost all over the British Isles on heaths, meadows and moors, from May to September. The upper surface of this butterfly (Plate VI, fig. 2) is a tawny yellow, with a dark brown border, and a spot of the same dark tint near the tip of each fore wing. The under side is much like that of the last species, but there are no eye spots on the hind wings. The eggs of the first brood are laid during May and June on the various grasses on which the caterpillar feeds. The caterpillars that emerge from these are fully grown in July or early August, and go through their changes during the latter month; but the later ones hybernate during the winter, and are not full fed till the following May.