Go down to Kew in lilac time, wrote the poet Alfred Noyes in a ditty called The Barrel Organ, singing the praises of the blossoms and the birds in the Royal Botanic Gardens at the height of the spring. Shame he didn’t mention the butterflies.

Go down to Kew in lilac time, wrote the poet Alfred Noyes in a ditty called The Barrel Organ, which sang the praises of the blossoms and birds in the Royal Botanic Gardens at the height of spring. Shame he didn't mention the butterflies.

The catastrophic decline of the common seal population in Scottish waters could be blamed partly on killer whales, marine biologists believe.

(AFP) - Cool paint job : A model displays the work of a make-upo artist during a body art contest during the "Beauty Salon 2009" exhibition in Kiev. (AFP/Sergei Supinsky)

(AFP) - Maverick Strain : Dancers with the Joe Godde Performance Group perform a scene from "Maverick Strain " during a dress rehearsal before opening night at the Joyce Theater in New York. (AFP/Timothy A. Clary)

(AFP) - Close encounter : Newly hatched butterflies land on a woman during a press launch of the "Butterfly Jungle" at the Natural History Museum in London. (AFP/Leon Neal)