PREFATORY NOTE. 



A BOX of common butterflies hanging on the wall of a 

 fellow-student's room in college first introduced the author 

 to the enjoyments of a naturalist's life. He ventures to hope 

 that the following pages, in which he gathers the observations 

 and reflections of many years the outcome of his friend's 

 collection may induce many another to enter this interesting 

 and fruitful field, where Nature is ever new, and many a 

 problem still remains unsolved. 



The author is indebted to Hon. CHARLES L. FLINT for the 

 liberal permission to take electrotypes from the original wood- 

 cuts illustrating the butterflies in Harris' Treatise on Insects 

 Injurious to Vegetation ; these woodcuts, drawn by SONREL 

 and engraved by MARSH, are masterpieces of xylographic 

 art and illustrate the best work of American engravers. 

 The BOSTON SOCIETY OP NATURAL HISTORY, Dr. A. S. 

 PACKARD, Jr., and Messrs. W. H. EDWARDS and WILLIAM 

 SAUNDERS have also permitted the use of a few cuts in their 

 possession. A considerable number have been procured from 

 Mr. C. V. RILEY, and a few from the publishers of the Ameri- 

 can Naturalist through Mr. EDWARD BURGESS, whose paper on 

 the action of the butterfly's trunk they illustrate. Mr. BUR- 

 GESS has also kindly drawn a couple of anatomical figures. 

 All of these are properly credited. The others are from draw- 

 ings in the author's possession, and, with the exception of half 

 a dozen woodcuts engraved by the Messrs. ANDREWS, were 

 prepared for photographic reproduction by Mr. J. S. KINGSLEY. 



