BUTTERFLIES AT THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. 133 



Mt. Washington, we pass, as it were, from New Hampshire to northern 

 Labrador ; for on leaving the New Hampshire forests and forest fanna 

 beliind us, we come first upon insects (there are otliers besides B. montinus) 

 recalling those of the northern shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the 

 coast of Labrador opposite Newfoundland ; and when we have attained the 

 summit a butterfly greets us which represents the fauna of Atlantic Labra- 

 dor and Greenland. 



Interesting as this is, how very meagre such a showing appears by the side 

 of our knowledge of the butterfly-faunas of the Swiss and Colorado alps, 

 where the mountains rise to so much greater heights, and the mountainous 

 area is so vastly more extended ! Li the Swiss mountains, where the 

 alpine area is limited above as well as below, and the melting of the eternal 

 snows kee})s the whole region above the trees one of the choicest pasturages 

 for cattle that the earth affords, the whole aspect of the butterfly world is 

 different. A host of species in infinite numbers crowd about the blossoms, 

 the springs, the very edges of the glaciers. Forms wholly unknown in 

 the valleys below, or allied to but easily distinguished from them, meet 

 one at every step. A species of Oeneis, very many of Erebia, several 

 Brenthis, a number of Melitaeidi, a host of Lycaenidi, with species of 

 Eurymus, Parnassius, and several Hesperidae, show how varied and strik- 

 ing the fauna is. Besides these a great many of the valley forms often 

 accompany them, among which will be found our old friends antiopa, 

 cardui and atalanta, so rarely seen with us above the forest. In the 

 Cordilleras of Colorado, where the snow-fields are far less important, and 

 glaciers are practically unknown, we have a condition of things between 

 the mountains of Switzerland and New Hampshire. The number of 

 distinct forms is considerable, but by no means so large as in Switzerland. 

 A couple of species of Oeneis are found here with several Erebias, and a 

 Brenthis or two ; some Melitaeidi also occur, most of which are also found 

 some distance below the timber line, which is here vastly higher than at 

 the White Mountains, being at about 10,000 feet. The Lycaenidi are 

 abundant, and one finds a characteristic Eurymus, Parnassius (also found 

 at lower levels), and one or two Hesperidae of the same group as occurs 

 on the Swiss Alps. Indeed, the agreement of the typical alpine forms of 

 Colorado and Switzerland is striking, and in strange contrast to the poverty 

 of New Hampshire ; the more so, as a large number of the additional 

 generic types are not those characteristic of high latitudes. What the 

 higher levels of the White Mountains would be as a home for butterflies, 

 if a thousand or two more feet were added to their elevation and snow 

 crowned the higher summits, it might be hard to say, but it would cer- 

 tainly be still very different from the fauna of the Swiss or the Colorado 

 alps. Many of the generic forms which are common to them scarcely 

 occur in eastern America ; so that the difference between the three alpine 



