A BUTTERFLY BOWER 



September 22d 



OMEWHERE among my books a wistful 

 poet sings, 



"I'd be a butterfly born in a bower." 



Now I don't know that it is the habit of 

 butterflies in general to be born in bow- 

 ers any more than anywhere else under 

 a cabbage-leaf, or a fence-rail, or stone, or 

 dried leaf, for instance. But I am going 

 to give my poet the fullest justice in assuming that 

 he meant to imply that he would prefer to be the 

 "Hunter's" butterfly to any other in creation; for in 

 this insect we have in truth the one butterfly that is 

 literally " born in a bower." 



Its bower is composed of petals and other parts of 

 flowers, and hangs among the blossoms 'of the common 

 everlasting (Gnaphalium decurrens}. It is occasionally 

 almost concealed among the flowers, but may often be 

 found quite conspicuously displayed, and three to four 

 inches in length. 



If we take a walk in the grassy road, in the pasture 

 lot, or mountain path, we may now find dozens of them. 



