This butterfly is even commoner than the last. Indeed, two butterflies out of every three which you see on a warm summer’s day are almost sure to be Small Whites, and they are always very plentiful indeed in gardens, where their caterpillars often do a great deal of mischief. You can easily tell them from the caterpillars of the “large white,” for they are pale green in colour, with a yellow line running down the middle of the back, and a dotted line of the same colour on either side. And instead of having short, stiff hairs all over their bodies, they are covered with a kind of very soft down. They, too, feed upon cabbages and cauliflowers, but instead of eating away the outer leaves only, like those of the “large white,” they bore their way right into the very heart of the plants, and often quite spoil them for use as human food. Very often, too, you may find them feeding on the leaves of nasturtiums, and also on those of mignonette. This butterfly, like the last, appears in the early spring, and again in summer, and you can tell the female from the male by the two black spots upon her front wings. The chrysalis is sometimes green in colour, and sometimes yellow, and sometimes light or reddish-brown. [Illustration: PLATE XVI 1. Large White 2. Large White Caterpillar 3. Small White 4. Small White Caterpillar 5. Green-veined White, under-side] PLATE XVI THE GREEN-VEINED WHITE (5) From a little distance you might very easily mistake this butterfly for a “small white”; for it is of just the same size, and the upper surface of its wings is marked in almost exactly the same way. But if you happen to see it sitting with its wings closed, you will notice at once that the veins on the lower surface of the hinder pair are streaked with green or grey. It is not quite as common as the “small white,” but you may see it flying about in almost any part of the country in May, and again in August. This butterfly lays its eggs on hedge-garlic, and also on winter-cress and sometimes on water-cress. They are most beautiful little objects if you look at them through a microscope, for they are shaped just like little tiny sugar-loaves, with ridges running down them from the top to the bottom, and smaller ridges crosswise between them. The caterpillars which hatch out of them are darker green above and lighter green below, with a row of little black spots on either side, each of which is enclosed in a yellow ring; and the chrysalis is green, sprinkled all over with the tiniest possible black spots. PLATE XVII THE GRIZZLED SKIPPER (1) Skipper butterflies are common enough in almost all parts of the country; yet very few people ever seem to notice them. The reason is that they hardly look like butterflies at all. They look much more like little grey or brown moths. Yet they are really butterflies, for if you look at them closely you will see that their feelers have little knobs at the tips. And that is one of the marks of a butterfly.