

VOL. XIX. LONDON, JUNE, 1887. No. 6 



THE EARLIEST BUTTERFLIES AT THE WHITE MOUNTAINS 



OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



BY SAMUEL H. SCUDDER, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



A few years ago a visit was made to the Glen, in the White Mts. of 

 New Hampshire, in the early spring, just as the first tender leafage was 

 appearing (June 2-5), and a report of the thirteen butterflies then found 

 was published in Psyche, 1874, vol. i, p. 13-14, i8-ig. Wishing to 

 secure eggs from some of the wintering butterflies abundant in that place, 

 which I then failed to secure from being too early, another visit was made 

 last spring to the same place, and at the same date (June 3-7), as the 

 season was evidently sufiiciently advanced to make it practically at least 

 a week later ; and so it proved, the vegetation at the Half-way House, at 

 the upper limit of forest growth on the Mt. Washington carriage road, 

 being this spring exactly at the stage at which I found it in the valleys at 

 the previous visit, the difference in elevation being over fifteen hundred 

 feet. The sky was equally sunny in both cases. 



The collecting ground was the same as previously, excepting that on 

 this occasion there was superadded an ascent of Mt. Washington by 

 Tuckerman's Ravine, with a descent by the carriage road ; and also a 

 walk southwardly from the Glen to North Conway. 



This last v/alk showed a very distinct change in the fauna from the 

 considerable clearing at the Glen to the open country to the south (a 

 thousand feet lower), after the eight miles of unbroken forest, ending 

 at Emery's, was passed. Pamphila sassaciis at once appeared in consider- 

 able numbers ; Brenthis iiiyrina, Phyciodes tharos and Atrytone hobomok 

 were far more common — all indicating an earlier appearance at this alti- 

 tude, since they are common enough at the Glen in their season ; while 

 only two or three Cyaniris pscudargiolus were seen, in place of the 

 abundance farther north, and not a single Amhlyscirtcs sainoset, which had 

 been seen sparingly at the Glen for several days. 



