fiibernating Butterflies. 145 
No matter how low in intelligence she may rank, Antiopa 
has nevertheless, or all experience is at fault, some general 
ideas of the time and fitness of things. From her gloomy 
abode in the wood-pile she has emerged, while all the gay 
butterfly world, barring a few familiar exceptions, is asleep, 
for a tour of investigation. Her venture is seldom ill-timed, 
for the violets have preceded her, and from their delicately 
curved flagons proffer her food and refreshment. 
Cool and unhealthful as the mornings are at first, it is not 
till the sun is nearly overhead that she leaves her retreat, for 
what of plant-life exists is then, under the full force of his 
beams, at its very best. Three or four hours a day, with few 
intervals of rest, she is actively on wing, regaling herself with 
exercise and food, thus storing little by little her body with 
some of the strength and vivacity which were hers when the 
famine of winter overtook her and forced her to retirement, 
so as the better to prepare for that work, the propagation of 
her kind, which is the principal, but not the only, aim of her 
existence. After four in the afternoon her presence is scarce, 
as she has sought her old, or some other, place of shelter and 
security, 
But when the days have grown longer and warmer, and 
the trees are arrayed in their livery of green, she is in the 
fields bright and early, and often ere the dew has disap- 
peared from the grass and the flowers. The most restless 
of beings she now is. Anon alighting upon a bush for a 
momentary rest, then off for a dozen or more rods, when 
the presence of some favorite blossom meets her quick sight 
and invites her to pause, which she does, but only for a 
second to quench her thirst. Where willows, or elms, or 
poplars abound, she is more frequently seen later on in May, 
but flying more slowly and sedately than ever before. The 
flowers pass unheeded. She seems in a dream, in a reverie. 
But all of a sudden she quickens her speed. You look 
for the cause. There, in the distance, another is seen, just 
like her in mien, some would-be suitor for her hand and 
