PREFACE. 



DuRi^^G the preparation of a long-projected and still 

 unpublished Manual of the Butterflies of North America, it 

 occurred to me that when that was ready there would still 

 be needed something less technical; something which 

 shoukl introduce to the young student the names and 

 somewhat of the relationships and lives of our commoner 

 butterflies; and that if such a guide Avere restricted to the 

 commoner butterflies of the region where it would be most 

 used, viz., our Northern States east of the Great Plains — 

 much the same territory as was originally and wisely 

 covered by Gray's Manual of Botany — the actual extent of 

 the work would be so limited as to l)ring it within the 

 reach of all, not alarm the beginner by its magnitude, and, 

 because they are better known, permit a fuller account of 

 their interesting life-histories. 



I have accordingly selected the butterflies — less than a 

 hundred of them — which would almost surely be met with 

 by any industrious collector in the course of a year's or two 

 years' work in the more populous Northern States and in 

 Canada, and have here treated them as if they were the 

 only ones found there. I have omitted many species which 

 are common enough in certain restricted localities (such, for 

 instance, as our White Mountain butterfly) and included 

 only those which are common over wide areas. As the 

 earlier stages of these insects are just as varied, as interest- 



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