Suspicious Conduct 
work on “The Genera of Diurnal Lepidoptera.” They correctly 
attributed it to the Rocky Mountains, but Kirby afterward 
gave Jamaica as its habitat, and this led to its subsequent rede¬ 
scription by Edwards under the name Victoria. It is a rare species 
still, having been received only from Laggan, Alberta, where it 
was rediscovered by that most indefatigable collector and ob¬ 
server, Mr. T. E. Bean. It frequents the highest summits 
of the lofty mountains about this desolate locality. Mr. Bean 
says: “ Astarte seems always on the lookout for an entomolo¬ 
gist, whose advent is carefully noted, and at any approach of 
such a monster nearer than about fifteen feet, its wings rise to 
half-mast, vibrate there a doubtful instant, and away goes the 
butterfly.” 
In addition to the thirteen species figured in our plates there 
are two other species of the genus, B. butleri , Edwards, from 
Grinnell Land, and B. improba , Butler, from near the arctic circle. 
It is not likely that many of the readers of this book will encounter 
these insects in their rambles, and if they should, they will be able 
to ascertain their names quickly, by conferring with the author. 
SUSPICIOUS CONDUCT 
The entomologist must not expect to be always thoroughly 
understood. The ways of scientific men sometimes appear 
strange, mysterious, bordering even upon the insane, to those 
who are uninitiated. A celebrated American naturalist relates 
that on one occasion, when chasing butterflies through a meadow 
belonging to a farmer, the latter came out and viewed him with 
manifest anxiety. But when the nature of the efforts of the man 
of science had been finally explained, the farmer heaved a sigh 
of relief, remarking, in Pennsylvania Dutch, that “he had surely 
thought, when he first saw him, that he had just escaped from a 
lunatic asylum.” The writer, a number of years ago, after having 
despatched a very comfortable lunch, sallied forth one afternoon, 
in quest of insects, and in the course of his wanderings came 
upon a refuse-heap by the roadside, opposite a substantial house, 
and on this heap discovered an ancient ham, which was sur¬ 
rounded by a multitude of beetles of various species known to 
be partial to decomposed, or semi-decomposed, animal matter. 
He proceeded immediately to bottle a number of the specimens. 
136 
