606 THE BUTTERFLIES OF XEW EXGLAND. 



window in the hotel on the top of the mountain, and was then left, still on 

 the plant, with others in similar condition, at the timber line for two more 

 days ; while still others were carried to the base of the mountain and kept 

 on violet for a similar length of time ; they were all fed with molasses and 

 water, but were all moribund at the end of the two days and none laid 

 any eggs whatever. As this was the fifth time I had gone to the White 

 Mountains to obtain some clew to the early stages of this insect I was not 

 a little disappointed. For a comparatively easy place to reach, where one, 

 with patience, will be pretty sure to find this butterfly, I would recom- 

 mend the extreme head of Huntington's Ravine, descending into it from 

 above just fiir enough to be out of sight of the mountain summit. 



Life history. Not much can be added to what has already been pub- 

 lished concerning the seasons of this insect. The butterflies, never very 

 abundant, have been found at various periods from the middle of July to 

 the middle of September, and comparing their appearance and condition 

 at these times with those of their allies in the valleys below the high re- 

 gions which this butterfly inhabits, it seems highly probable that notwith- 

 standing the bleakness of its chosen home, the history of this butterfly 

 may be found to agree better with that of its neighbors on the plains below 

 than with that of its European colleagues, which have one generation less 

 a year ; that is to say, the condition in which the butterfly is found leads 

 one to conjecture that there are at least two broods even of this alpine 

 buttei'fly. The first specimens that have been noted were taken July 12. 

 Others were found on the 21st and at various times throughout August. 

 Those captured on the 2nd of August had well developed eggs, others 

 ■taken on the 11th of that month were noted as in "good condition." 

 On the 14th I last year saw two or three dozen in tolerably fresh condition 

 more broken than rubbed ; of the fourteen taken four were females full of 

 ecros quite developed, but the females could not be made to lay when en- 

 closed on growing violets, as already noted : in a previous year I captured 

 on the 15th of September, after a search of several hours, a single Avorn 

 female with fifteen eggs in her body. She died the same night without 

 laying on the violet on which she was placed shortly after noon. Now, 

 inasmuch as a spring brood has been observed in Europe and America, in 

 all the butterflies of this genus Avherever any observations have been noted, 

 and as butterflies of the present species with developed eggs have been 

 found from the middle of August to the middle of September, requiring 

 that this insect should hibernate in the caterpillar stage, it would appear 

 probable that here, too, there is a spring brood of butterflies. Possibly 

 those observed in July were only the later individuals of this first brood 

 and that the second brood makes its appearance early in August. That 

 the females of this brood may deposit their eggs at once upon eclosion is 

 proven by the observations from the 2d to the 14th of August ; but that 



