A Butterfly Victim
It is an oddity of the season that in some districts hornets, generally regarded as rather rare insects, are more common than wasps. They seem also to be more fierce than their wont, if the following instance, reported to me by a neighbour artist, is at all typical. AS he was watching the numerous Tortoise-shell butterflies round about his buddleias he saw one "behaving in a strange manner," and on closer examination found that it had been seized by a hornet. The two settled dose to his feet and he killed the hornet, but was quite unable to loosen its grip on the wretched butterfly's wing. Within ten minutes he saw another hornet attacking a Tortoise-shell, but without success, and such incidents were repeated a number of times. It seemed to him that if the butterfly exerted its full power of flight it was comparatively safe, but the slow flier was doomed. In that case one would think that the Meadow Browns, which are yet more common than the Tortoise-shells, would be helpless. Does any butterfly look quite so lazy on the wing?
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