34 



quite rare — a phenomenon as natural though less regular 

 than the roll of the sea; (2) the gradual disappearance of 

 some species, once common, and, (3) the more or less sud- 

 den appearance of others whose homes have been, hitherto, 

 in distant parts of the country, and even beyond either ocean. 



I once saw our Blackberry Butterfly, Apatiira celtis^ 

 swarming in such numbers along the St. Francis River, in 

 Arkansas, as to prove uncomfortable to people travelling 

 like myself on the little steamer which made her way 

 slowly up stream. I counted no less than seventeen of these 

 butterflies on the back of a deck hand, as he went about his 

 work, and the penalty of a yawn was to feel an imprisoned 

 butterflv fluttering tbout in one's mouth. This abundance 

 occurred for about 30 miles along the river and probably 

 extended as far east as the Mississippi River, about 45 miles 

 away, and throughout a countr}^ very sparcely inhabited. 

 The present summer our English brethren have been set all 

 agog over the capture of several speciniens of Vanessa 

 antiopa^ in the north of Scotland. The species has become 

 very nearl}- extinct in England, and this sudden appearance 

 of specimens, resembling by their peculiar tints those found 

 in America, which differ somewhat from English speci- 

 mens, has led to the speculation that they came from our 

 country, by the wav of the Faroe Islands. The present 

 year, in Northern Illinois, where, during a long residence, I 

 very seldom ever saw it, the larvae of Cimbex americana 

 nearly defoliated the different species of willow growing 

 along streams and in wet places, while Mr. J. J. Harrison, 

 president of the nursery firm of Storrs «& Harrison, near 

 Painesville, Ohio, recently told me that the same insect had 

 nearly ruined the willows which the firm grow for the pur- 

 pose of securing withes for binding bundles of trees. John 

 Bartram, in his observations, made while journeying from 

 Pennsylvania, at a point a short distance above Philadel- 

 phia, to Onondago, Osvvego and Lake Ontario, in i743> 



