NYMPIlALlXAi:: BKENTIIIS MOXTIXUS. 605 



verse, better limited, tlioiig-li still vague stripe ; the round spots are 

 deeper in tint in B. c. boisduvalii, and the large, submarginal, triangular 

 spots are of almost as deep a hue as in the present species, and edged 

 more conspicuously with ochraceous than here. 



From the typical B. chariclea it is more readily distinguished, the 

 most striking differences occurring on the under surface of the hind wings. 

 In B. chariclea the outer limit of the lower half of the intra-mesial 

 l)and is deeply and largely serrate, the costo-subcostal and subcosto- 

 median spots of the band wholly silvery white ; the rosaceous band 

 is more distinct than in B. montinus, though as limited as there, but it has 

 become silvery white, and is reached by the serrations of the intra-mesial 

 band ; the round spots beyond it are small, without edging, and the sub- 

 marginal triangular spots are also very small and almost black ; the 1)]ack 

 sj)ot in the cell also is reduced almost to a dot. 



T have seen B. chariclea from southern and eastern Labrador : B. c. 

 boisduvalii from Rupert's Fort, east coast of Hudson's Bay, and from 

 Great Slave Lake. 



Distribution. As far as know^i this buttei-fly is confined to the sub- 

 alpine zone of the White Mountains (Shurtleff, Sanborn, Whitney, Scud- 

 der) and to the summits of surrounding mountains ; it has been seen 

 by Dr. Minot on the top of Black Mountain in Thornton, N. H. ; several 

 specimens were seen or captured by Mr. Faxon on Mt. Clinton, one of 

 the White jMountain chain lying southwest of Mt. Pleasant. 



Haunts. Probably no wandering collector has often seen more than 

 eight or ten of these butterflies in a day's scramble among the mountains, but 

 if sought early in July they might be found in greater abundance ; on a sin- 

 gle occasion only I have seen as many as four at one time : they are most 

 common about the steep heads of the great ravines which have eaten their 

 way into the heart of the mountain, and in the alpine gardens; they fly 

 witli no great rapidity close to the ground among the scanty foliage grow- 

 ing in the rocky crevices of the steep mountain sides ; Messrs. Sanborn 

 and Whitney have often seen them on mountain willow, Salix herbacea 

 Linn., which grows but a few inches above the ground ; so frequent and 

 prolonged were their visitations to this plant that these observers sought 

 carefully but in vain for eggs ; and it is more probable that the caterpillar 

 feeds upon some of the Violaceae. 



Oviposition. I have also watched them narrowly, but have been unable 

 to see them oviposit. On a single occasion a female, acting quite as if in 

 search of a spot on which to deposit her eggs, alighted on a plant of Geum 

 radiatum var. peckii and I was so sure she had laid upon it that I first netted 

 the female and then examined the plant, only to find myself mistaken. A 

 female with ripe eggs in her abdomen, as autopsy afterwards proved, was 

 kept for an entire day in mid August, on a growing violet plant at an open 



