HABIT AS A (iUIDK TO CLASSIFK^ATION. 827 



on tlio wiiitr, ami vice versa ; altlioiijili in some we may find certain com- 

 mon cliaraeteristics shared liy tlic two, as in the leisurely ways of the 

 Satyrinae. 



That this is true follows from the foot that certain special habits charac- 

 terize large groups. Thus tlic mode of Hight of the Satyrinae, which toss 

 themselves lazily up and down as they move leisurely from spot to spot, is 

 found to a greater or less degree in all the niendiers of the subfamily ; 

 even in our \Vhite Mountain butterHy, which inhabits a place and is 

 subjected to external conditions so different from the others ; but it is not 

 found elsewhere among butterflies. The caterpillars of this same group 

 are universally slow in their movement, there being not a rapid traveller 

 among tiiem. All the caterpillars of the Nymphalidi hunch themselves, 

 the better to display their largest tubercles. One of the most curious 

 instances we may cite is the habit of rubbing the erect hind wings 

 together shortly after alighting by all or nearly all the Lyeaeninae, cer- 

 tainly by members of each of its three tribes, and so far as we know, it is 

 done by no other butterflies. The darting, skipping flight of the Hespe- 

 ridac is anotiier instance, as well as the odd style in which the Paniphilidi 

 hold their win<rs wiicn aliohtcd and alert, the hind wings horizontal, the 

 fore wings vertical or oblique. Peculiarities of nest building are gener- 

 ally shared by a caterpillar with many allies, perhaps by the whole tribe 

 to which it belongs. Slight tricks of movement, as of the sudden elec- 

 trie flirting of the wings when alarmed, or of the position of the antennae, 

 arc shared by many. This is equally true of the manner and place of 

 aligliting. Wiio ever saw one of the Lycaenidi settle instantaneously 

 like a Pamphilid? How it doubts whether it has found the best place, or 

 whether on the whole it will alight now or not ! 



So one might go through the whole catalogue of the ways and lives of 

 butterflies to find that the great majority were ways and lives not of one 

 but of many, — inherited traits, become fixed in their lives by constant 

 repetition. Most frequently they are generic habits rather than specific, 

 often tribal traits, or even subfamily tricks ; this in itself shows that 

 habit as a general thing must be older than the w4ng pattern. But if any- 

 thing more were needed to show it, it would appear by the facts of mim- 

 icry, where pattern plainly shows a far greater pliancy to the sunmions of 

 natural selection than can be affirmed of habit ; and the numerous cases of 

 protective resemblance tell ecpiaily the same story ; here habit has often 

 moulded pattern, or at most they have abetted each the other. As we 

 must invariably discard the slightest notion of anything intentional on tlie 

 part of the protected form, we cannot say, for instance, that the White 

 Alountain butterfly alights on a gray rock, in preference to the ground or a 

 twig of Vaccinium, in order to gain the protection afforded by the resem- 

 blance of the under surface of its wings to the mottled rock, but rather 



