818 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEAV ENGLAND. 



Old and not too extensive cultivated clearings in tlie forest district, 

 approached bv a liiirlnvay tliroiigh the forest are choice spots, but such are 

 becoming rarer every year, and must be souglit in comparatixcly new 

 country. Wallace found tlie same true in Brazil. "1 lia\c invai-iahly 

 found," says he, "tliat in au open path througli tiic forest the chequered 

 liglit and shade causes a variety of plants to spring and flowers to blow, 

 wliich in their turn attract a great variety of insects. An open pathway 

 seems to have similar attractions for many kinds of insects to what it has 

 for ourselves. The great blue butterflies, and many smaller ones, will 

 course along it for miles, and if driven into the forest, will generally soon 

 return to it again. The gleams of suusliine and the free current of air 

 attract some ; others seek the blossoms which there abotuid ; while e\ery 

 particle of animal matter in the pathway is sure to be visited by a number 

 of different species." (Travels on the Amazon, 170.) 



Yet he who would content himself with these places, where the abun- 

 dance of life is forced upon his notice, would fail to obtain many sorts that 

 appear to visit but rarely or even to shun such choice spots. INIany 

 frecpient the open meadows or even favor the dry pasture ; others follow 

 the tangle which grows by fences and walls in the country or skirt tlie 

 edges of woods ; others seek the depths of open deciduous woods, espec- 

 ially before the foliage is full-leaved : while not a few vastly prefer the 

 hill-tops open to the sky ; marshes claim some kinds, and even rocky 

 ledges are the unlooked for liome of others. It is only the adventurous 

 lover of nature in all her moods who will make the best aurclian. 



It takes a long time to exhaust all the possibilities of a given district, 

 but a good entomologist soon discovers most of the choice spots. It is 

 well, therefore, to take counsel of a local spirit, and put oneself under his 

 guidance. Successive generations of hunters hand down the sanctity of 

 certain special spots, but with the rapid and wholesale changes wrought 

 upon tlie face of the land by our irreverent civilization, these often become 

 mere traditions. It may, however, be well to notice one or two New Eng- 

 land localities. Mention has been made elsewhere of the White Mountains 

 as a home for butterflies, and of the special attractions of the Glen, and it 

 is not necessary to do more tlian to allude to them. The nearest approach 

 elsewliere to such spots may be found in the Hopper, the deep, ojien- 

 moiitlicd ravine on the westerly side of Qraylock in jNIassaciiusctts, where 

 at an elevation of not far from a tliousand feet above the sea a very sim- 

 ilar fauna occurs, but with less profusion of individuals. It has never 

 been properly hunted and would certainly well repay a summer's resi- 

 dence in one of the two or thi-ee farm houses found there, especially if 

 residence began with the first outburst of vegetation. Tlicre must also 

 be many a similar but lesser ravine or pass in the Green Mountains and 

 in the iiill-district of New Hampshire, in the broken country of western 



