130 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



very edge of the forest line, and enchanting the early pedestrian at every 

 step. They are also one of the earliest risers, and are the first to be seen 

 when the clouds break after a rain. Of the Chrysophanidi, Heodes hy- 

 pophlaeas is of course abundant, as everywhere, and Feniseca tarquinius 

 may always be found in its time at the proper places ; there is one isolated 

 copse, with alder (everywhere growing in profusion ), just north of the 

 Glen House, where I never fail to see it fluttering about when in season. 



Among the Pierinae, Eurymus philodice and Pieris rapae are of course 

 abundant enough. I shall be surprised if E. interior does not some day 

 turn up here, having escaped the net only because no one takes so common 

 an insect as its congener, which it resembles too much on the wing to be 

 readily distinguished from it. The only interesting form of this group 

 found here is Pieris oleracea. Though nowhere nearly so common as 

 thirty years ago, when I first collected at the momitains, when one might 

 see fifty at a time in an open field, it is not yet quite exterminated by the 

 invading P. rapae, and in the very first of the season, when a dozen or so 

 may be taken in a day, is as common as that species ; but with the ad- 

 vanced season it appears quite lost among the swarms of the latter. Proba- 

 bly it will always hold out in this, its New England stronghold. 



None of the swallow-tails are pre-eminently abundant, with the single 

 exception of Jasoniades glaucus. But this is indeed an exception. Early 

 in June of any year one may take a dozen or twenty with a single sweep 

 of the net at moist places by the roadside, or if cautious enough pick up 

 with the fingers one specimen after another till he wearies of the task. It 

 never fails to be abundant, and its great size and social habits make it 

 appear the commonest butterfly of the region. The males appear to vastly 

 outnumber the females. 



The skippers may be dismissed with a few words, as most of them may 

 be found equally abundant elsewhere ; but this is certainly the best place 

 I know for obtaining Thanaos icelus, and is probably the best for securing 

 those rarer forms, Pamphila mandan, and Amblyscirtes samoset-, though 

 they are never very abundant, while A. vialis is always to be met with 

 early in June. 



These are the more interesting of the valley butterflies of the White 

 Mountains, found in much greater abundance than elscAvhere ; but they 

 form a small part of those which abound here, and the real interest centers 

 in noting to what height any of them may be found. For this the open 

 heads of the great ravines which seem to gnaw at the very vitals of the 

 great mountain masses, with the wagon road up Mt. Washington on one 

 side, and the broad railway-cutting at the other, forming as they do high- 

 ways for butterfly as well as man, are the most interesting and instructive 

 spots. Prominent among those which may be found, and Avhich probal)ly 

 or certainly pass their lives in any part of the forest region, however 



