204 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGlSt. 



the pupae on the beach under a small board, and on searching for the 

 food plant, discovered the larvae had fed on the Cakile americana — a 

 curious maritime plant, which though belonging to the Cruciferae, is very- 

 remote from the cabbage. 



Callidryas eubule Lin. Specimens were observed on the wing nearly 

 every day along the margin of the ocean, flying apparently at the height 

 of fifteen or twenty feet and about the same distance from the shore, so 

 that their capture could not be effected, though I took a crippled one and 

 thus ascertained the species. All appeared to be southward bound, flying 

 steadily but slowly. 



Colias philodice is annually represented by a few specimens. In the 

 absence of clover, the larvse probably feed on an abundant native species 

 of Phaseolus that seems in perpetual bloom, and of which the butterfly 

 appears very fond. 



Danais archippus Fab. The multitude of this butterfly that assembled 

 here the first week in September is almost past belief Millions is but 

 feebly expressive — miles of them is no exaggeration. On the island is a 

 strip of ground from 150 to 400 yards wide and about two and one-half 

 miles in length, overgrown with Myrica cerifera ; after three o'clock these 

 butterflies coming from all directions, began to settle on the bushes, and 

 by evening every available twig was occupied. To see such multitudes at 

 rest, all suspended from the lower sides of the limbs, side by side, as is 

 their well known custom, was something well worth seeing. One evening 

 I travelled more than half the distance of their encampment, and learned 

 that It extended the whole length and breadth of the bushes. In the 

 morning they gradually separated and did not appear unusually numerous 

 during the day, but in the afternoon they came again as described. I 

 found them on the second, the day of my arrival, as related above, and 

 this was repeated daily till the sixth, the forenoon of which was rather 

 calm and sultry ; a storm of wind and rain came on about two o'clock 

 p. m., continuing till midnight. The next afternoon few came to camp ; 

 the great army had disappeared — but, how ? when ? where to ? During 

 the next few days they appeared again in considerable numbers — about as 

 they had been observed in former Septembers — but insignificant when 

 compared with those that preceded. The males and females were about 

 equal in numbers. Not a single stalk of their food plant (Asclepias) 

 grows on the island. On the main land, seven miles distant, I observed 

 several patches of A. tuberosa in full bloom, but saw neither larva nor 



