47 



when nothing whatever is known of them, except what the dried 

 butterflies show, and after the fashion set forth above with the 

 Asterias group, goes without saying. 



The attack is opened upon Papilio Zolicaou, so named and 

 described by Dr. Boisduval, who was one of the foremost Europ- 

 ean lepidopterists of this century. Another species, P. Oregonia, 

 was recently discovered by Mr. Henry Edwards, and described 

 by myself. On p. 150 we read, -'the large number of specimens 

 of both sexes (74) approves the statement that both species can- 

 not be separated." And establishing this proposition to his own 

 satisfaction, the Doctor advances to " the knotty question of the 

 American P. Machaon.'' That is, Machaon,vd,9, Aliaska, Scudder. 

 After running through the whole literature of MacJiaon, the pero- 

 ration has the RING of victory. " Can the separation of the 

 American species" {Zolicaoti, Orcgonia, etc.) "be maintained? 

 I answer boldly, NO ! After the examination of a hitherto 

 unparalleled series of specimens, showing EVERYWHERE IN- 

 TERMEDIATE FORMS, they should be considered as local 

 or climatic varieties of one and the same species, of P. MacJidon.'^ 

 And he closes, to the dismay of some of us, with the announce- 

 ment that Mr. Pryer has now united eleven, perhaps twelve, spe- 

 cies of Terias as belonging to one and the same species, which 

 author concludes that " neither sice, shape nor color can be relied 

 on as guides for specific distiJiction f' and as he retires, comes this 

 Parthian shot, " I believe that a revision of the North American 

 butterflies on this basis is a want." At which I gasp, may heaven 

 forbid that Mr. Pryer, or any of his disciples, should devote their 

 destructive energies to the North American butterflies I I do 

 not know Mr. Pryer, nor what sort of an observer he may 

 be, nor what his facilities for the study of the Terias may have 

 been, but this I do know, that unless he has arrived at his con- 

 clusion by breeding from the eggs, the assertion above quoted, if 

 it really is intended to mean what the naked words declare, is not 

 worth the paper it was written on. If eggs laid by one of the 

 eleven or twelve species produced the rest, then the assertion 

 might be made good, otherwise it is the sheerest guess-work. 



Let us proceed to consider the statements of this paper. It 

 is said, on p. 150, that seventy-four specimens of both sexes were 

 taken in Washington Territory, east of the Cascade Mountains. 

 " The typical Zolicaon is represented by half a dozen specimens 

 flying promiscuously with the others." (If they fly at all in the 

 same territory, they fly promiscuously, of course. In one group, by 

 a puddle on the road, I often see P. Turnus, AJax, Troihis and 

 Philenor). " The main part of the specimens belong to P. Ore- 

 gonia!' What " true Zolicaon " is, the Doctor tells us under 

 four heads. What "true Oregonia" is, we are left to infer, and 

 in every case it is something not typical Oregonia. One or 

 more characters are constantly modified in the direction of Zoli- 



