It is very easy to see why these little insects are called “Skippers,” for they seem to _skip_ from flower to flower in a manner quite unlike the flight of any other butterfly. And the Grizzled Skipper is one of the commonest of them all. You may see it darting about in May, and again in August, in open grassy places in woods. But it only seems to live for a short time, so that although it may be flying about in numbers one day, two or three days later it will have quite disappeared. The caterpillar is sometimes green and sometimes brown in colour, with paler lines along its back and sides. It feeds for a few weeks on bramble-leaves, and then turns into a dull white chrysalis spotted with black. [Illustration: PLATE XVII 1. Grizzled Skipper 2. Dingy Skipper 3. Large Skipper 4. Small Skipper] PLATE XVII THE DINGY SKIPPER (2) This little butterfly certainly deserves its name. One cannot call it a pretty insect, for it is just dull, dingy brown all over, with just a faint grey band running across the middle of the wings. So unless you look very carefully for it you are not likely to see it. It does not live in woods, like the “grizzled skipper,” but flies about on flowery chalk banks in the sunshine, first in May, and then again in August. And sometimes you may see it in numbers in an old chalk-pit, never resting on one flower for more than a very few moments, but skipping about in the most active way from one blossom to another. The caterpillar of this little butterfly feeds on the bird’s-foot trefoil, that low plant with yellow flowers which grows so commonly on chalky banks. If you should ever happen to find this caterpillar you can tell it at once by its colour, which is pale green, with two yellow stripes running along each side of the body, and over each stripe is a row of little black dots. When it has finished growing it turns into a fat and rather bunchy little chrysalis, which is dull green in front and rosy-red behind. PLATE XVII THE LARGE SKIPPER (3) The Large Skipper is one of the commonest of all these queer little butterflies, and you may see it in dozens and dozens, skipping actively about from flower to flower on grassy banks by the roadside, and in open places in woods. The male is not quite like the female, for he has a rather large streak of dark brown running across his front wings, which look as if they had been scorched down the middle. And the body of the female is so very stout that she certainly looks much more like a moth than a butterfly.