^84 NATURAL HISTORY OF NORTH AiMERICA, 



the remark has been made before, in reference to Van Die- 

 man's Land.*^ 



At Alton, on the Mississippi, we took a good many things. 

 There were numbers of Alticce on sumachs, near the town, 

 and Cetoniae on the flowers of the Solidaaines ; on these I 

 also took one specimen of a curious Coleopterous insect, which 

 I first imagined to be Dipterous ; secondly, I supposed it to be 

 a Stylops ; and at last, on a more close examination, I con- 

 clude that it is Coleopterous {Myodes stylopides). On the shores 

 of Lake Michigan I took a hw insects, and a few at Niagara. 



A few words more on butterfles. Papilio P/iilenor, and 

 P. Sinon were not uncommon, neither was D. Archippus. 

 Philenor is easy to catch, alighting often on flowers, and still 

 oftener on the mud in the roads, or rather cart tracks. In 

 these situations, the different species of Colias absolutely 

 swarmed : I am certain I have sometimes seen hundreds on 

 the mud within a few square yards. This was particularly 

 the case as we travelled from Shawnee town to Carmi, but 

 then I coukl not catch them. I however caught a good many 

 at Wanborough ; one, a plainly yellow one, is very hard to 

 take, it flies like our English Rhamni, and rarely settles on the 

 mud. I only found a very small Terias {Terias Delia), in 

 plenty at Alton, and these only on the high bluff which over- 

 looks the town, and the " Father of Waters." The Noctuoi 

 taken at Wanborough, were all, or nearly so, caught at the 

 lights. In summer, I think Mrs. Prichard's would be a fine 

 situation for them. 



I may add to what I have already said about the songs of 

 birds, that I do not think the woods here so musical as our 

 own ; we have however few birds equal to the ferruginous 

 thrush, and .the rose-breasted grosbeak. And now for my long 

 promised list of birds round Trenton. There are two or three 

 species of hawks which I could not get hold of; first, a large 

 hawk, called there hen-hawk {Buteo borealis), looking very like 

 our common buzzard, as it flies. One day, I saw a bird of 

 this species seated on the top of a tall hemlock, and a king- 

 bird watching him ; I had often seen this before, but was 

 never more amused than at this time. The moment he left 



'' 111 a paper communicated to the Entomological Magazine, by William Swain- 

 son, Esq. ; and printed in Vol. II. p. 503. 



