338 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [14:8— Nov., 1918 



In many walks I am accompanied by my daughter Eleanor 

 and her friend, Anna, of the same age. All of us have home-made 

 nets. Eleanor's is quite wonderful in size. She says the little 

 butterflies escape when she uses a smaller net. It measures 

 eighteen inches across, and is about two feet in depth. Anna's 

 is smaller, only measuring twelve inches across and one-and-a-half 

 feet in depth, mine being regulation size and pattern and is ten 

 inches wide and eighteen inches deep. We take a pint fruit jar 

 converted into a cyanide jar, a bottle of chloroform and a cigar 

 box in which to carry our specimens after they are dead. 



Eleanor captures a kitten in her butterfly net 



The first summer in my eagerness and ignorance I gathered 

 everything that could fly, that is, those things that were not 

 too quick for me. In a field of Joe Pye weeds (Eupatorium 

 purpureum), Monarch butterflies (Anosia plexippus) abound. 

 We gathered them by dozens and discovered later that many of 

 them were Viceroys (Basilarchia disippus), the imitators of the 

 Monarchs. This is said to be one of the most pronounced cases 

 of mimicry in our fauna. The Monarchs are bitter to the taste 

 of birds, consequently they are not bothered by them. The male 

 has a peculiar odor coming from a little scent-bag on the under 

 wing, the purpose of which is said to attract the female. The 

 Viceroys are very fragile and dainty and have followed the Mon- 

 archs for so long that they have become very much like them in 



