478 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



and South America, it is distributed over the entire extent of every conti- 

 nent. Australia and New Zeahmd produce a race peculiar to themselves, 

 while the other large islands south of Asia possess the normal type, which 

 is also found upon small islands lying off the western borders of the Old 

 World, the Azores, Canaries, Madeira, and St. Helena. On the other 

 hand, it has not been discovered upon the small islands off the American 

 coast, such as Guadalupe, the Revillagegidos, and Galapagos on the 

 western side, or the Bahamas on the eastern, — excepting in Bermuda, where 

 it is "common" (Jones) ; neither does it occur in any of the Antilles, 

 excepting Cuba, and there but rarely.* It is reported, however, from 

 islands lying in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, such as the Hawaiian 

 o-foup and Tahiti, but its normal occurrence there is at least doubtful unless 

 it has been recently introduced. And here I may remark that the 

 improbability of the occurrence of this insect upon islands lying in 

 the middle of the Pacific Ocean has led me to look carefully into the origin 

 of this general belief. The sole authority for Tahiti is Boisduval, who 

 remarked forty years ago (Nouv. ann. mus. nat. hist., ii : 191) that he 

 possessed specimens from Tahiti, Brazil, Cayenne, etc. ; but it should be 

 noticed that V. cardui is not now recognized from Brazil and Cayenne, 

 and that Dr. Boisduval is not considered too careful in his geographical 

 statements ; moreover, Mr. A. G. Butler does not mention it in his List 

 of the diurnal Lepidoptera of the South Sea Islands (Proc. zoiil. soc. 

 Lond., 1874, 274 seq.), and Dr. C. Pickering, the naturalist of Wilkes' 

 Exploring expedition, told me that it was unknown on Tahiti in 1839. 



A citation of the Hawaiian Islands will be found in the first List of the 

 British Museum butterflies, where (p. 79) Mr. Doubleday credits four 

 specimens to those islands, two brought by Captain Bryon and two by 

 Captain Beechey. I was informed by Mr. Butler some years ago that 

 there was then only one specimen in the museum from the "Sandwich 

 Islands," and the reference upon the ticket is to the oldest manuscript 

 register, not now to be found. Bryon and Beechey were at the islands in 

 1825-27. Mr. W. T. Brigham informs me that V. cardui was not found 

 by Mr. Mann and himself during a twelvemonth's residence at the islands 

 twenty or more years ago. Dr. Pickering writes that it was unknown 

 when Wilkes's expedition visited the islands in 1840-41. The Vincennes, 

 to which Dr. Pickering was attached, was at the islands from the end of 

 September to the beginning of April. Bryon and Beechey 's visits were 

 between the latter part of January and the middle of July. Mr. Butler 

 does not consider the specimen in the British Museum, nor the record of 

 Doubleday, sufficient authority to include this insect in his list of South 

 Sea butterflies. Upon the whole, we cannot fairly accept the present 



* Cramer gives it, but probably by mistake, latest list of the Lepidoptera of Jamaica, by 

 from Jamaica. It is not mentioned in the Moscliler. 



