XX. 



THE WAYS OF BUTTERFLIES 



The butterfly is a daughter of high noon and of 

 the sun. Rainy days see none astir. A few will 

 venture out on a dull day, but it needs the full 

 blaze of the sun to marshal all the hosts ; indeed, 

 there are few butterflies abroad in New England 

 before seven or eight o'clock of a summer's day, 

 and long before nightfall, with closed wings, and 

 antennae snugly packed between, they are quietly 

 resting beneath some leaf or clinging to some 

 grass-blade. The morning seems to be the favorite 

 time for changes, at least with us, whether it be 

 for depositing eggs, their hatching, the ecdyses of 

 the caterpillar, or the assumption of the pupal and 

 imago states. In the tropics, according to Distant, 

 many species have a definite period of the day 

 for their flight, and the esmeralda butterfly, by 

 Wallace's statement, even prefers showery weather 

 for its activities. In resting at night each species 

 has its own peculiar haunts, from which it may be 



