VI PREFACE. 



Should this volume be the means of inciting some 

 to seek this source of healthful enjoyment, and to join 

 in the peaceful study which may be so easily pursued 

 by all dwellers in the country, it will have succeeded 

 in its purpose. 



The whole of the illustrative portraits of the butter- 

 flies have been drawn from nature by the author, and 

 with one exception from specimens in his own collec- 

 tion. At least one figure of each species (of the natural 

 size) is given ; but in very many instances, where the 

 sexes differ considerably from each other, both are 

 figured, and the under sides are also frequently added. 



The greater number of the caterpillars ana chrysalides, 

 however, being rarely met with, the figures on the first 

 plate are nearly all borrowed from the splendid and 

 accurate works of Continental authors chiefly from 

 Hiibner and Duponchel. 



With great pleasure, the author here acknowledges 

 his obligations, for many biographical facts relating to 

 butterflies, to those highly useful periodicals, the Zoolo- 

 gist and the Entomologists Weekly Intelligencer, the 

 former devoted to general natural history, the latter 

 especially to entomology, and whose pages register a 



