163 



pursue the same plan there. In the woods there are some- 

 times swarms of particular species. One boy counted seventy 

 specimens of Glcea vaccinii on one tree. My brother finds that 

 coarse, strong-smelling sugar is to be preferred, and he generally 

 puts a moderate quantity into a pan of water, and brushes it on 

 with a large paint-brush just after sunset. I think you would 

 succeed in this way in getting a great many moths. I wish I 

 had tried it in East Florida and at Trenton Falls. In summer 

 the blossoms of the lime-tree swarm with Noctuce. We used 

 to take a sheet and spread it on the ground under the trees, 

 and strike them sharply. This would sometimes shake down 

 forty or fifty moths at a stroke. Now the blossoms of the 

 common Ivy (Hedera helix), which is just flowering, swarm 

 with moths. By attention to these various modes of collecting, 

 we have made our vicinity unrivalled as to the number of Lep- 

 idoptera collected in it. 



Should I go merely for a short visit to France I mean to take 

 a host of things for Boisduval's inspection. Especially your 

 Thedce and Hesperice. This reminds me of a "blue " I have de- 

 scribed as Polyommatus Lygdamus, one of Abbot's. I told you 

 about it. I find there are two species like Argiolus in America. 

 I caught both, but only females of the Northern one. They 

 have males from Nova Scotia in the Museum. It is clearly 

 distinct from what I took in Carolina. 



DOUBLEDAY TO HARRIS. 



10 NEWINGTON CRESCENT, April 30, 1842. 



I have not time to follow you in your remarks on the Noto- 

 dontians now, but will soon write you more fully on the sub- 

 ject. I will, however, remark on a few of them, and on some 

 of the others. 



