218 BUTTERFLIES 



"As the flight of these insects is weak, they have been 

 obhged to resort to a number of tricks to outwit their 

 enemies. In capturing these butterflies the collector will 

 very soon become acquainted with their modes of escape, 

 which are very interesting and show no small amount of 

 cunning, scarcely to be looked for in an innocent little 

 butterfly. Their first plan of escape on being disturbed is 

 to make directly for a dump of bushes into the thickest 

 part of which they dive and there remain until the danger 

 is past. If one is startled from the grass at some distance 

 from a safe retreat and the collector overtakes him, he will 

 immediately dodge backward and forward, at one time 

 high in air and again low down near the grass tops, and in 

 spite of his slow flight keeping well clear of the net. If the 

 net is at last brought very close to him he will try his last 

 desperate scheme to elude his pursuer and shutting his 

 wings quickly together will drop into the gra,ss, disappear- 

 ing as if by magic. If it were not for the cunning of the 

 frail little creatures they would doubtless have gone to the 

 wall long ago in the struggle for existence.'* 



The Southern Wood-nymph 



Cercyonis pegala 



This large southern butterfly is sufficiently distinct from 

 the other Wood-nymphs to rank as a separate species. 

 The yellow blotch has expanded into a large band extending 

 practically across the front wings. On its upper surface 

 there is one eye-spot in the male and two in the female. 

 It is abundant in the extreme Southern states and has 

 occasionally been taken much farther north. 



