SOME BUTTERFLY FRIENDS 



wings flip about like animated question- 

 marks, and fulvous fritillaries soar se- 

 dately, now and then lighting to feed 

 and fold their wings that you may see 

 the big silver spots of the under parts. 

 And so you might name them all, al- 

 most every butterfly of early August, 

 all besieging the milkweed so eagerly 

 that you may hardly drive them away. 



The fact is they come neither for 

 scent nor sight; they come for good 

 taste which they find in the honey 

 glands of the peculiarly shaped bloom, 

 which are obvious and sticky and within 

 reach of all. I do not think it is half 

 so much the odor of the flower which 

 draws them, be it never so sweet or so 

 strong, but memory of the honey dew 

 sipped there yesterday or last week. 

 No doubt the love of the milkweed 

 bloom is an inherited tendency, also, 



