64 THE COMMONER BUTTERFLIES. 



naked, but with two pairs of long and very slender black thread- 

 like filaments, one pair, the longer, on the second thoracic, the 

 other on the eighth abdominal, segment. The body is white with 

 numerous slender black and yellow, and especially black, trans- 

 verse stripes, repeated with considerable regularity on each of 

 the segments, so that there are nowhere any broad patches of 

 color. Length nearly 2 inches. 



Chrysalis. — Pea-green. Stout and not elongated, largest in 

 the middle of the abdomen, where it is transversely ridged; else- 

 where it is smooth and rounded, with no striking prominences, 

 but with little conical projections at most of the elevated points 

 like those which half encircle the body at the abdominal ridge, 

 all of a golden color except the latter, which are situated in a 

 tri-colored band, black in front, nacreous in the middle (these 

 dividing the points between them), and gilt behind. Length 

 more than 1 inch. 



We begin with one of tlie most interesting of our butter- 

 flies, about which a volume might be written, but of which 

 we have still much to learn. It is found in the summer- 

 time over almost the entire continent, certainly as far north 

 as into the Dominion of Canada; and yet it is probable 

 that it does not exist in the winter further north than the 

 Gulf States. It has extraordinary powers of flight, more 

 so than any known butterfly, and every autumn when 

 abundant (after first collecting in vast flocks or bevies of 

 hundreds of thousands, changing the color of the trees or 

 shrubs on which it alights for the night) migrates south- 

 ward in streams, like our migrating birds. After passing 

 the winter on the wing, without so far as known hibernat- 

 ing in torpidity, it leaves its winter quarters in the extreme 

 south with the opening spring and flies northward, not in 

 flocks or streams, but singly. The females lay their eggs 

 when they are ripe wherever they may chance to be, some 

 flying even as far as southern New York and Minnesota 

 before concluding their life-duties. The caterj^illars born 

 from these eggs develop into butterflies, many of which 

 again fly northward before they lay their eggs; while the 



