e hedge into the next
field.

"Here, Fred," said Mr Inglis, handing his nephew a small bag net fitted
to a joint of a fishing-rod; "now try what you can do, and see if you
cannot creep up quietly without all that rush and fuss your cousins
make. Now, then, there goes another sulphur butterfly."

Fred started off, and followed the insect all along one side of the
field by the wood, and then partly along the other, when the game gently
rose and went over to the other side. But there was a gap in the hedge,
and Fred crept through; but on reaching the other side no butterfly
could he see for a minute, when all at once it rose from a flower close
beside him, and began flitting down the hedge-side again. At last it
alighted upon a bunch of Mayflower, quite low down, a late cluster that
ought to have been out in bloom a month earlier; and now Fred crept up
closer and closer till he stood within reach, when he dashed the net
down and just missed the insect, which began to rise, when, recovering
his net, Fred made another flying dash, and to his great delight he saw
that the yellow treasure was fluttering about inside.

Just then his uncle and the boys came through the gap, and the
butterfly, which Mr Inglis said was a very fine specimen, was secured
and placed in one of the large pill-boxes.

The captures now made became frequent: at one time it was a gorgeous
peacock admiral, with the splendid eyes upon its wings; then one of the
pretty tortoiseshell butterflies, or a red admiral, with its lovely
lace-edged wings; then again, one of the curious dusky-veined, or an
orange-tipped, with its under wings so beautifully traced with green.
Down by the pond side, too, they captured some of the fierce libellulae,
the gauzy-winged dragon-flies, that darted about with such a powerful
flight over the water, and then hovered apparently motionless, as though
looking at their beautiful bodies reflected on the bright surface. On
one bank, too, a bright little green lizard was captured, and carefully
secured, to place in one of the fern cases; besides which there were
rose beetles, watchmen, spiders, and tiny flies, that Fred considered
were neither curious nor pretty, but which Mr Inglis said were quite
the contrary, being both curious and pretty, or, rather, beautiful, as
he would show Master Fred when they reached home. There were plenty of
specimens, too, to have been obtained from the water; but this was not a
water expedition, s