238 OLD PLYMOUTH TRAILS 



pie tree the ground is yellow with the apples that 

 it has shed and here all through the sunny hours 

 two Vanessa butterflies have alternately floated 

 and feasted, one a mourning cloak, the other a 

 Compton tortoise, Vanessa antiopa and Vanessa 

 j-album. These are late arrivals that have come 

 from the cocoon upon a cold world and are doing 

 their best to make good in it. Both are of a 

 species that are hardy beyond belief and both 

 may well winter in the crevice within the gnarled 

 trunk of the old tree into which they creep be- 

 numbed when the chill of night begins to fall. 

 The pasture at midday was bright with the yel- 

 low of coiias butterflies which dashed madly 

 about from one fall dandelion bloom to another, 

 eager to eat enough while the warmth should 

 linger. I saw many of the American copper with 

 them, these with a more conspicuous white mar- 

 gin to the tiny wings than I have ever seen be- 

 fore, a fall form I fancy rather than anything 

 permanently new in this rather variable insect. 



All these the first chill of nightfall sends to 

 crevices and with them go the black wasps which 

 have been feeding desperately in the sun on gold- 

 enrod and aster. The hornets are dead. Not 



