THE PROCESSION OF TlIK SEASONS. 849 



The chrysalis is siiuihir to those of Thechi, of lighter color, with darker 

 lonnfitudinal markings. 



EXCURSUS XXIX.— THE PROCESSION OF THE SEASONS. 



Among the f;illiiig loaves some birds yot sing, 

 Ami Aiitumii has his hutterllios liiie Spring. 



LAN DOB. 



No ONE can observe buttci"fiies in the most casual way without having 

 forced upon him the constant fluctuation of forms that greet his eye. At 

 one time he will he struck by the abundance of kinds and of individuals ; 

 then by tiic small number he will meet, mostly of two or three sorts. 

 One common kind he will fancy he has lost sight of, only to have crowds 

 of them burst on him later in the season. He will look for the reoccur- 

 rence of othei's in vain. And each succeeding year he will note the same 

 phenomena in the same order, varied only by the greater abundance or 

 scarcity of one kind or another. 



This supplanting of one species by another is in wonderful adaptation 

 to the parallel changes going on in the vegetable world, especially among 

 the flowers. I do not know that any of our naturalists or artists have 

 written of the harmony between the prevailing tints of a New England 

 landscape at different times of the year, and of the insect world at the 

 same seasons. Our common butterflies, which nature has been at such 

 pains to adorn, show a shifting panorama of form and color from early 

 spring to the time of frost. First, in the sombre leafless woods come the 

 various dusky wings, brown and black, skipping softly in and out among 

 the gray rocks and over the dry leaves and dark pools of melting snow, 

 or sunning themselves on dry sticks athwart the sun. Hard upon these, 

 in the time of early violets and hepaticas and frequenting the spots most 

 loved by them, follow the little blue butterflies, scarce larger than the 

 flowers. Then, as spring fairly bursts upon us with its fresh and varied 

 hues, come crowds of queenly swallow-tails, lustrous with metallic gleam, 

 or striped and belted with gay colors ; and the banded and spotted purples 

 that court the quiet forest road and the brink of the mountain brook ; the 

 soft white buttei-flies, that look too pure for earth, less retiring than the 

 last, float about our gardens, alas ! on sad intent ; while the brisk little 

 tawny and black skippers everywhere bustle and whisk about. Summer, 

 with its blazing sun and diversified blossoms, brings us the hot-looking 

 coppers, and all that dappled band of fritillaries and angle-wings, blocked 

 in red and black above, and often variegated by odd dashes and spots of 

 burnished silver, or by peacock eyes beneath. How they crowd about 

 the spreading thistle blossoms, or on the many-flowered umbels of the 

 milk weed, and fan themselves with content at their sweet lot I As autumn 



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