SEASONAL CHANGES AND HISTORIES. 135 



eggs of this brood are laid throughout September 

 and even later, and at this season the caterpillars 

 do not mature so rapidly, winter overtakes at 

 once caterpillars of various ages, chrysalids, and 

 butterflies, and probably also eggs. The experi- 

 ence of breeders, and the diversity in the time of 

 appearance of the butterflies in the spring, render 

 it probable that the cold season kills not only the 

 butterflies and eggs, but perhaps the chrysalids 

 as well, leaving the caterpillars to renew the life 

 of the species in the spring. Indeed it is a com- 

 mon thing in plural-brooded butterflies to find 

 every possible stage on the ground as winter 

 comes on ; for the more the number of broods is 

 multiplied, the more confused do the distinctions 

 between them become ; and in many cases, were 

 the season longer, no doubt it would become quite 

 impossible to trace them. The butterflies go on 

 sucking honey and laying eggs, the eggs hatch- 

 ing, the caterpillars eating, until a heavy frost 

 kills off all the unprepared and terminates the 

 history of the species for the season ; those of 

 one stage survive the shock, the others die ; this 

 is the case with several of our swallow-tails and 

 yellow butterflies and with not a few others ; 

 sometimes it is the caterpillar, sometimes the 

 chrysalis, at others the butterfly which survives ; 

 the egg, in such cases, never. 

 Now let us turn, finally, to those which winter 



