THE TRIBE OF THE ANGLE-WINGS 177 



common name the White Border and also occasionally 

 the Grand Surprise, appellations which bear out what has 

 been said above both in regard to the color of the border 

 and the rarity of the insect. 



The Mourning-cloaks subsist upon a considerable vari- 

 ety of liquid food which they suck through their long 

 tongues. In spring, when they first come from their 

 winter quarters, they visit the stumps of recently cut 

 trees and suck the exuding sap, a habit which they con- 

 tinue whenever opportunity offers. Mr. W. F. Fiske 

 has noticed that they commonly sip the sap of maple 

 twigs where the squirrels have gnawed the bark. A little 

 later they visit the willow catkins to suck the nectar 

 secreted by these blossoms, and still later they hover about 

 the delicate blossoms of the mayflower, or traihng arbutus, 

 for a similar purpose. Probably many other flowers are 

 thus rifled of their sweets, although this butterfly seems 

 to be a less regular visitor to flowers than are many of its 

 allies. A httle later, when the aphids, or plant-lice, have 

 become sufficiently abundant so that the so-called "honey 

 dew" is to be found upon the infested shrubs, these Mourn- 

 ing-cloaks sometimes sip the liquid sweet from the surface 

 of the leaves. In April and May they occasionally visit 

 the flowers of moose wood, and later in the season have 

 been observed upon the blossoms of the common milk- 

 weed. From the time the early apples ripen these butter- 

 flies may often be seen beneath the orchard trees, sipping 

 the liquids of the fallen and decaying fruit. 



The Parasites of the Eggs 



One fine spring morning I came upon a Mourning-cloak 

 depositing a cluster of eggs upon a willow twig. She was 



