60 THE LEPIDOPTERIST 



engaged in catching Argynnis, Nitocris, Sphinx elsa, 

 dolli and such other much wanted great rarities which 

 are represented in collections mostly by their names 

 only. 



The next day we boarded the Florida train. 

 Weather was fine and ice and snow were disappearing 

 fast. However, as it was not yet warm enough to 

 sit on the platform of the observation car, we had 

 to be contented to view the scenery from its inner 

 room. Not until we reached Washington, D. C, did 

 we see any signs of spring in the vegetation, and even 

 in Washington the trees had only a green tint. When 

 we woke up the next morning we had passed Rich- 

 mond, Va. The early spring weather had arrived 

 there a number of days before us, for the meadows 

 were green, the willows in leaves and many other 

 trees had started to open their buds. Along the way- 

 stations in Virginia we had the first opportunity to 

 study the life-history and behavior of the melanistic 

 (or nigristicf) race of Homo sapiens. The outstand- 

 ing feature we discovered was the facility with which 

 they succeeded by applying many different forms and 

 ways of extracting pennies, nickels and sometimes 

 larger coins from the pockets of travellers on trains. 

 The weather was now very comfortable, and we en- 

 joyed it much riding on the observation car, except 

 when all the seats were taken by other tourists, who 

 equally seemed to enjoy sitting there in spite of the 

 fact that we were the only two entomologists on the 

 train. The vegetation became more summerlike with 

 every hour, various specimens of Musca domestica 

 made their appearance in the dining car, much to the 

 disgust of the tourists who did not want to share their 

 very dear meals with visitors, and almost an hour be- 

 fore we passed Charleston, S. C, we saw the first 

 butterfly, a Dione vanillce S crossing the tracks- Soon 

 we noticed Pieris rapes, w^hich became quite abundant 

 the nearer we came to Savannah, Ga. Many Odonata 

 were accompanying the train, and before the train 

 pulled into Savannah we had seen Pap. turnus, troilns. 

 specimens of a Colias and of a Thecla species. Shortly 



