the height of four or five feet, and after some months the but- 

 terfly appeared there also (it was the butterfly, I think, that 

 was first noticed by my friends) and that too, before they had 

 become common on the northeastern side of the island, where 

 they were first propagated, and long before they were found at 

 any intermediate point. I am under the impression that the 

 plant was subsequently introduced at Kusaie, and that the but- 

 terfly also appeared there, but of this I am not personally cog- 

 nizant. 



" Barcelona, Spain, April 17, 1873." 



The above account was furnished by Rev. Dr. Gulick, at my 

 request, for insertion in my work on New England Butterflies; 

 but its special interest induces me to publish it independently. 

 The butterfly in question is a species which abounds over the 

 southern half of N. America and the northern half of S. 

 America, including the intervening islands. In N. America, it. 

 is single-brooded (not double-brooded, as asserted by Mr. Riley), 

 the butterfly hibernating. It leaves its winter quarters later in 

 the season than other hibernating butterflies and continues 

 upon the wing until July and August, laying eggs all the time, 

 so that the insect may be found in its earlier stages throughout 

 most of the summer. The eggs are deposited upon the under 

 surface of leaves and hatch in four or five days; the caterpillar 

 attains its full growth in two or three weeks and the chrysalis 

 hangs from nine to fifteen days. The earliest butterflies which 

 have not hibernated may be found in New England in July; so 

 that while the earlier stages are passed rapidly, the perfect 

 insect lives a full year, mingling on the wing with its own prog- 

 eny and witnessing the decay and renewed growth of the plant 

 which nourished it; for the Asclepias dies early and is not suffi- 

 ciently grown to support the caterpillars of Danaida when the 

 first butterflies appear in the spring. 



The butterfly has extraordinary powers of flight and has been 

 seen fifteen or twenty miles from land ; when several are sport- 

 ing together they are described as " gyrating in a wild manner 

 at all heights," some so far up that they appear " but as moving 

 specks in the sky. " But it would be utterly absurd to presume 



