A LONG ISLAND MEADOW 



In addition to being the most widely distrib- 

 uted, it is one of the most interesting of our but- 

 terflies. Its career is an amazing one. How so An 



fragile a creature can endure the fatigue and resist SrJJT* 

 the storm and stress incidental to a journey oi 

 thousands of miles, such as it is believed to take- 

 when migrating to southern lands, and how such 

 a " shining mark " escapes destruction from its ene- 

 mies, it is difficult to understand. That this annual 

 migration does take place seems fairly well estab- 

 lished. The butterfly is known to have marvellous 

 powers of flight, and along the coast in the fall it 

 has frequently been seen assembling in flocks 

 numbering hundreds of thousands, changing the 

 color of the trees on which it alights for the night. 



Its great weapon against its enemies, the birds, a weapon 

 is the rank odor exhaled from its entire body, as °' * m 

 well as a specially nauseous smell produced by 

 the males at will by means of a bunch of hairs pro- 

 truding from either side of the abdomen. 



This safeguard is supposed to be the cause of 

 what is called the " unconscious mimicry " of an- 

 other tribe of butterflies which wear the same liv- 

 ery of orange and black. It is, perhaps, hardly 

 necessary to say that this so-called " mimicry " is 

 believed to be the result of long periods of time 

 during which only those members of the Jiasil- 

 archia that bore some resemblance to the mon- 



119 



