130 



FYS CHE. 



[August 1S91 



butterflies were placed on the afternoon 

 of the 2 1st, and at seven o'clock the 

 next morning this cage was taken to 

 Cambridge and carefully examined, with 

 the result of finding twenty-six eggs ; 

 most of these were laid on the dead last 

 year's blades of sedge ; a number were 

 found on the wire hoops supporting the 

 netting ; still fewer on the green blades 

 of the sedge, — perhaps four or five; 

 one on a piece of brown paper in which 

 the pot was wrapped, but none either 

 on the netting, the edge of the flower- 

 pot, or the ground. 



Toward the end of July, 1887, as re- 

 ported in my New England Butterflies, 

 p. 146-147, I carried three females of this 

 butterfly down the railway on Mount 

 Washington to the base, and found them 

 apparently affected by the change so as 

 to be unable to fly. I thought it would 

 be well to repeat the experiment and 

 extend it ; accordingly, when I left the 

 mountain July 22, I did not disturb the 

 butterflies I had placed in the cage until 

 I reached Cambridge, or just before 

 dark of the 22d. The butterflies were 

 all of them affected as described by me 

 before, but to a slightly less extent, none 

 lying quite helpless on their side and 

 some, after being fairly down the moun- 

 tain a few hours, keeping their wings 

 tightly closed continuously as they hung 

 from the lace. It is possible (though I 

 do not think it at all probable, from the 

 nearly continuous shaking of the train) 

 that some of the eggs mentioned were 

 laid after leaving the summit of the 

 mountain, but some have certainly been 

 laid since their arrival at the seaboard, 



for one was seen laid on July 23, 

 seven were found on July 24 and twelve 

 more on July 25. Their behavior 

 below when attempting flight is quite 

 the same as one finds on startling 

 them up from the sedge toward the 

 close of the day on the mountain ; 

 they flutter close to and in contact with 

 the ground as if injured, and unable 

 even with desperate efforts to get away. 



It was a somewhat curious coinci- 

 dence that I heard on my return that 

 Mr. W. H. Edwards had received in 

 West Virginia a lot of semidea, male 

 and female, sent alive in a pasteboard 

 box from Mount Washington ; half were 

 dead, but two of the females were lively 

 and wandered about the cage in which 

 he placed them. It is quite evident, 

 then, that the change to a lower level 

 does not interfere with their activities to 

 the extent that I supposed it did. 



Oeneis semidea is very abundant 

 this year ; a single larva in last stage 

 but not quite fully grown was found 

 under a stone on July 20. 



During our stay on the mountain, 

 Mr. Lyman and I searched in vain from 

 the Ledge to Tuckerman's Ravine, in 

 all its best known haunts, for Brenthis 

 montinus without seeing one, and I am 

 quite convinced that it was not on the 

 wing. But an interesting capture was 

 made of Eurymus interior, males of 

 which, to the number of a dozen or 

 two, were seen in the lower half of the 

 woodless region. The only other but- 

 terflies seen above timber were Argyn- 

 nis cybele, Pieris rapae, and Etiphoe- 

 ades glaucus. 



