62 THE REPORT OF THE No. 1» 



annually colonized by immigrants from the south which lay eggs up to the middle of August ; 

 that the butterflies never mate the first'season ; that some attempt hibernation, but that while 

 hibernation may be successful in a few localities in southern New England, usually every 

 hibernator north of the annual isotherm of 40° perishes ; that large numbers migrate south,, 

 and pass the winter in an active state, that the butterflies live for more than a year, and mingle 

 on the wing with their progeny of the succeeding season, from which it has been suggested that 

 its common name should be " the Tramp" or " the Patriarch." 



Mr. MoflTat, in the interesting papers which he has contributed to our Annual Reports, 

 accepts Dr. Scudder's theories, and even adds to them. He appears to claim that all 

 butterflies observed ovipositing in the north have come from the "south," but believes that 

 there are several broods in the south, and that each of these broods is controlled by the same 

 strong desire to travel northward, and that there are thus successive waves of immigrants- 

 which lay eggs and produce fresh butterflies, and that these successive waves account for the 

 egg layings from " about the first of ;June and before,'' till such late layings as produced the 

 butterfly which Mr. Moflat had emerge on the 6th of November, but Mr. Moffat wisely 

 declines to attempt to draw the line between north and south for this butterfly. 



There is one point, however, which is not made clear, and that is whether Mr. Moffat be- 

 lieves that the butterflies which emerge in July from eggs laid by the first arrivals in Ontario 

 continue on the wing in the locality where produced, or also emigrate to still more northern 

 latitudes, and if the latter, whether these having come from the " south" mate and oviposit 

 in these more northern regions. 



My own experience of this butterfly extends over many years, but I have probably not 

 given it the same careful study that Mr. Moffat and others have done. I have, however, ap- 

 proached the subject with an unprejudiced mind, and have always been open to conviction, 

 but at the same time confess that by natural disposition I am inclined to look with suspicion 

 upon any theory which attributes abnormal causes to observed phenomena. 



The facts, so far as I have observed them, are that in the early summer worn and dis- 

 coloured females appear on the wing, and are seen ovipositing. These worn and discoloured 

 specimens soon disappear, and no such specimens have- ever been seen by me after about the 

 middle of July. What becomes of them ? Do they die here after laying their eggs, or do they 

 press on to the " north " ? 



On many occasions I have first seen these immigrants at the end of June or 1st July. At 

 Au Sable Chasm, on 1st July, 1895, I saw the species for the first time that year, and secured 

 two eggs which I saw laid, and a butterfly reared from one of these eggs emerged 31st July. 

 Doubtless they sometimes arrive earlier. Mr. Winn has seen them earlier. I do not remem- 

 ber to have done so in the neighbourhood of Montreal, prior to 1899, and have frequently 

 searched the Milk Weeds in June for eggs or larv* without success. 



Once only I found a larva nearly full grown, on the mountain, which must have come from 

 an egg laid about the middle of June, but in 1899, on the annual excursion of the Natural 

 History Society of Montreal to Montfort, on 10th June, this butterfly was seen flying, and Mr. 

 Norris found an egg and gave it to me. This egg hatched about the 11th, pupation occurred 

 on the 29th, and the butterfly emerged on the 10th July. 



On 1st July of that same year, on an outing of the Montreal branch to Chateauguay Basin, 

 I took a pair in coitu. The male was bright, but the female worn and discoloured. I kept 

 them alive in a cage with the food plant, and secured one or two eggs, and a butterfly reared 

 from one of them emerged on the 4th August. 



In 1896 I went down to Portland, Me., on 29th August, and during a ramble on the 30th 

 found a larva of the species nearly full grown, which pupated on 7th September. Allowing 

 the usual time for the larval period, the egg could hardly have been laid before the 15th 



