422 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



State for them, and Holland remarks that at Berkeley 

 Springs, in West Virginia, he counted, one summer day, 

 forty specimen! hovering over the weeds and flowers 

 in a small, deserted field. That was surely a good day 

 for Tiger Swallowtails! In regions where they are es- 

 pecially abundant, it is not an uncommon thing to see 

 >r eight settling on some moist spot in an open place 

 in the woods, or on the edges of a big puddle in the road, 

 or on certain chosen sites on the banks of rivers and 

 streams. There, too, we will see other species of butter- 

 flies associated with them, 

 as the black papilios of the 

 region, the buckeyes, and 

 the silver-spotted skippers 

 (Figure 6). 



On the 14th of August, 

 1919, the writer was col- 

 lecting butterflies at the 

 upper end of Rock Creek 

 Park, Washington, D. C. 

 It had rained heavily a few 

 days before and at one 

 place, on a moist spot in 

 the middle of the wood- 

 road, there were gathered 

 on about a square foot of 

 ground no fewer than thir- 

 teen elegant specimens of 

 these Tiger Swallowtails ; 

 while flying up and down 

 the road, in the shade of 

 the many birch trees grow- 

 ing there, were many oth- 

 ers, associated with several 

 other species. With con- 

 siderable difficulty a big 

 camera was gotten into 

 position to get a negative 

 of that remarkable assem- 

 blage of insects. Unfortu- 

 nately the removing of the 

 focusing cloth from the 

 camera, though done with 

 the greatest possible care, 

 gave them alarm ; they 

 arose en masse to disperse, 

 alighting in various other 

 places. 



It is a strange thing that 

 a creature as frail as the Tiger Swallowtail should be 

 endowed with such wonderful powers of flight. With a 

 body but of little more than an inch in length, and very 

 slender, and with a wing extent rarely exceeding four 

 and a half inches, this dauntless insect is as much at 

 home in the air as any bird that ever lived. With strong 

 and steady flaps of its wings darting here, and hovering 

 where fancy leads it it soars, without apparent effort, 

 to the tops of the tallest trees of the forest ; sails in the 

 bright sunlight through the open glades, soon to descend, 

 in a zigzag course, to alight upon the royal purple head 



ALIGHTING 



SPICE BUSH SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLY JUST 

 UPON A HEAD OF PURPLE PHLOX 



Figure 6. Nearly every one is familiar with this large showy black 

 butterfly of the Atlantic States. Some of our insect collectors devote 

 themselves entirely to this gorgeous group of insects, and their cabinets 

 contain only representatives of them to the exclusion of all other forms. 



of an Ironweed. Upon meeting one of its own species, 

 the two execute a kind of aerial waltz as they flit above, 

 below, and around each other in their play on the wing. 

 Coming out into the open fields, their giddy flight leads 

 them here and there in varied course, as they visit the 

 flower-tops of thistles, goldenrod, and other attractive 

 plants. Growing thirsty, down they come to some low, 

 Bat bank of a sluggish stream, attracted by the presence 

 ui others of their kind, and sip away to their hearts' 

 content, pausing only now and then for a brief frolic in 



the sunlight with some 

 other big, black and yellow 

 vagabond of their own sort 

 with no more in its bit of a 

 brain to worry it. 



When we come to study 

 the black forms of the 

 United States swallowtails 

 of the genus Papilio, we 

 have an interesting group 

 of species for considera- 

 tion. Doctor Holland gives 

 us colored figures of the 

 majority of these, or of 

 such of them as had been 

 discovered and described 

 up to the date of appear- 

 ance of his "Butterfly 

 Book;" and while his de- 

 scription and plates are ex- 

 tremely useful, there is 

 much that is lacking in 

 them. Only too often he 

 omits any description what- 

 ever of these black swal- 

 lowtails, and the reader 

 must rest satisfied with the 

 statement that "the figures 

 in the plates obviate the 

 necessity for describing this 

 familiar but most beautiful 

 insect, the glossy blue- 

 jreen of which flashes all 

 summer long in the sun- 

 light." 



Now the under sides of 

 the wings in all of these 

 Swallowtails of the genus 

 Papilio present a very dif- 

 ferent color-pattern to that upon their corresponding 

 upper surfaces ; and yet, how few experts ever think of 

 describing these. Recently, the writer has been paying 

 considerable attention to this group, in the field and in 

 collections; and forms of this black Swallowtail have 

 been taken presenting color-patterns that are strikingly 

 different from those found in any work on the subject 

 illustrated by colored plates ; later on some of these will 

 be briefly described. While color-pattern is often of 

 considerable value in the matter of determination of 

 species, and to a lesser degree in classification, it is, as a 



