384 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 5 



metallic, shimmering gold or golden orange, purple, green, or blue, 

 or two or more of these together, such lovely kinds being perhaps 

 the most magnificent of all the butterflies. 



The swallowtails are especially to be found in more or less rugged 

 regions — hilly or mountainous country — where they haunt the bor- 

 ders of woodlands and the nearby fields and gardens, or the roads 

 and glades and clearings in the woods. Many like rough and more 

 or less open, scrubby country, while some prefer low-lying open 

 fields or even the gloomy recesses of swamps. Rocky exposed hill- 

 tops, both in woodlands and in open country, are everywhere a 

 favorite playground for them. 



Each of the different kinds of swallowtails has its own special 

 preferences, which are not quite the same as those of any other 

 kind; but some are much less difficult to suit than others. For in- 

 stance, our common yellow swallowtail {Papilio glaucus, pi. 8, fig. 30) 

 lives both in woods and open country, in lowlands as well as in the 

 mountains, from Alaska east to Hudson Bay and southward to Flor- 

 ida and the Gulf of Mexico. Our common black parsnip swallow- 

 tail {Papilio polyxenes asterius, pi. 12, fig. 59), on the other hand, 

 is an open country, chiefly lowland butterfly and will not enter 

 woods, while the spicebush swallowtail {Papilio troiltts, pi. 11, fig. 

 49) and the palamedes of the South {Papilio palatnedes, pi. 11, figs. 

 47, 48) prefer the woods, especially wet low-lying woods, and will 

 not stray far from them. 



Very nearly all the swallowtails are strong upon the wing. The 

 larger usually have a leisurely, more or less sailing or gliding flight 

 that is often much swifter than it seems to be. This type of flight 

 is seen in our giant swallowtail {Papilio cresphontes, pi. 9, fig. 37). 

 The smaller swallowtails for the most part have a fluttering, nerv- 

 ous flight which in some is very irregular, in others direct and 

 very swift. This nervous, erratic flight we see in our common 

 black parsnip swallowtail {Papilio polyxenes asterius^ pi. 12, fig. 

 59) as we watch it dashing about over the clover fields, and in the 

 even more impetuous flight of the large summer males of the blue 

 swallowtail {Papilio philenor, pi. 11, fig. 53). In some of our 

 swallowtails the small individuals of early spring, found chiefly 

 in the woods, have a fluttering and active flight that is more or 

 less widely different from the flight of their much larger summer 

 children, living largely in the open. We notice this in the yellow 

 {Papilio glaucus, pi. 8, fig. 30) and the zebra {Papilio Tnarcellus, 

 pi. 13, fig. 78) swallowtails. 



Mainly tree-top butterflies, flying strongly, swiftly, and very 

 high, or sailing about the branches far above the ground, are the 

 largest and most magnificent of the swallowtails, the ornithopteras 

 or bird-winged butterflies (pi. 1, fig. 1) of the Malayan region. 



