I'lERlNAi;: KLUY.ML'S I'lHLODlCK. 1119 



ei^lit oxampli's — lliiis illustratiiif; the irroifiitiir iippeiiriiiu'i' of the Coliailes — four of 

 wliicli \V(Ti> captmvd bi-twei'ii Hri^hton ami Lewi's in Sussex; and a siuiilar number in 

 tlie vicinity of York, as I am informed by Mr. Cooper — ttiese last were found in Sep- 

 tember — the others in company with ('. liyale and etlusa. 



Since writing the above, I llnd, by the Butterlly-CoUectors Vade-Mecum, that this 

 species Is said to occur, though rarely, in the meadows and roadsides near Ipswich 

 In Siilfolk, in the middle of August. 



Haunts and abundance. Tliis butterfly is found everywhere in open 

 Hi'Ms, niciulows ami [cisiiucs. C)n tliu island of Nantucket where all the cul- 

 tivation is in the noighl)oriiood of tlio ditl't'rent handets, it occurs abundantly 

 only in tluir vicinity, being met with in the open country elsewhere only 

 rarely. It is one of our very couiinone.st butterflies. We have seen, says 

 DTrban, "more than twenty pitciied at the same time on a bush of 

 Micliaehnas daisy, and in some parts of Canada the fields look almost 

 yellow with their dancing forme." "Myriads" is the onh^ expression to 

 use. said Henry Edwards, when he saw one day immense swarms next a 

 railway track for the space of a mile; "when disturbed, they flew up in 

 clouds," and nearly all were males. 



It collects on damp spots of eartli by the roadside or on the brink of 

 pools or streams, particularly in autumn ; here it may be foimd in com- 

 pany with Cvanirides, ^Iclitaeidi and others, sometimes in almost incredible 

 nundiers. Mr. Bethune tells how in Canada on the third of August, a 

 lovely, bright, warm morning, after an excessively wet night, he "drove 

 aliout ten miles along country roads ; every few yards there was a patch 

 of mud, the effects of the heavy rain, and at every patch of mud there 

 were from half a dozen to twenty specimens of philodice, at least one, I 

 should think, for every yard of distance I travelled. I must then have 

 seen, at a very moderate computation, about ten thousand specimens of 

 this butterfly." 



So, too, Gosse writes (Can. nat., 262-263) : "I observed, a few days 

 ago, on the public road, great numbers of the clouded sulphur (Colias 

 philodice) in flocks of eight or ten, pitched on the patches of wet, slushy 

 mud ; they were so closely set together as to make yellow spots, visible a 

 long wav off". These little flocks continued at intervals for some miles." 

 D'Urban, Harris, Doubleday, and all recent observers as well, have the 

 same story to tell. 



Oviposition. Dr. Asa Fitch makes the following record in one of his 

 note i>o(>ks : — "July 9, 1873. After a cloudy, rainy day, yesterday, the 

 sun comes out bright to-day, and al)out !) A. ^^. I notice two or thi'ce of 

 these butterflies, busily ovipositing in front of the oflice — gently settling 

 down on a clover leaf, for only a moment or two, and then rising and 

 settling on the next clover plant they come to. And if they come to a 

 clover flower, they settle on it a nmch longer time, and uncoiling their 

 trunk commence sipping the honey, forgetting the work they were en- 

 gaged al)out." 



