UNIQUE AND POPULAR WORKS FOR ALL NATURE LOVERS. _Uniform with this Volume._ * * * * * Wayside and Woodland Blossoms A Pocket Guide to British Wild Flowers for the Country Rambler. (_First and Second Series._) With Clear Descriptions of 760 Species. BY EDWARD STEP, F.L.S. And Coloured Figures of 257 Species by MABEL E. STEP. * * * * * Wayside and Woodland Trees A Pocket Guide to the British Sylva. BY EDWARD STEP, F.L.S. With 127 Plates from Original Photographs by HENRY IRVING, And 57 Illustrations of the Leaves, Flowers and Fruit by MABEL E. STEP. * * * * * AT ALL BOOKSELLERS. _Full Prospectuses on application to the Publishers_-- FREDERICK WARNE AND CO. LONDON: 15, Bedford Street, Strand. NEW YORK: 36, East 22nd Street. THE WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND SERIES THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE BRITISH ISLES [Illustration: _Pl._ 1. _Frontispiece._ Swallow-tail Butterfly. _Male and female, with caterpillars and chrysalids._] THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE BRITISH ISLES BY RICHARD SOUTH, F.E.S. EDITOR OF "THE ENTOMOLOGIST," ETC. WITH ACCURATELY COLOURED FIGURES OF EVERY SPECIES AND MANY VARIETIES ALSO DRAWINGS OF EGG, CATERPILLAR CHRYSALIS, AND FOOD-PLANT LONDON FREDERICK WARNE & CO. AND NEW YORK 1906 (_All rights reserved_) PREFACE. Few things add more enjoyment to a country ramble than a knowledge of the many and varied forms belonging to the animal and vegetable kingdoms that present themselves to the notice of the observing wayfarer on every side. Almost every one admires the wild flowers that Nature produces so lavishly, and in such charming variety of form and colour; but, in addition to their own proper florescence, the plants of woodland, meadow, moor, or down have other "blossoms" that arise from them, although they are not of them. These are the beautiful winged creatures called butterflies, which as crawling caterpillars obtain their nourishment from plant leafage, and in the perfect state help the bees to rifle the flowers of their sweets, and at the same time assist in the work of fertilization. It is the story of these aërial flowers that we wish to tell, and hope that in the telling we may win from the reader a loving interest in some of the most attractively interesting of Nature's children.