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1876.) A Cosmopolitan Butterfly. I. Its Birthplace. 393 
On the American continent, its southern boundaries will prob- 
ably be found in Venezuela, New Grenada, and Ecuador,! but it 
is abundant even as far south as the highlands of Guatemala, and 
thence stretches northward over the entire breadth of the conti- 
nent to the arctic regions; on the eastern coast it has been 
found as far as Labrador, and on the west to the eastern shores 
of Behring’s Straits.? In the heart of the continent I have taken 
it upon the Saskatchewan, and Doubleday reports it from Mar- 
tin’s Falls; but Mr. W. H. Edwards does not recollect seeing it 
in the few collections he has examined from points farther north. 
As we see it flourishing in the colder regions of Europe and 
North America, so also is it found on all mountain heights ; and 
Mr. H. W. Bates, writing of the whole genus, distinctly says it 
is “found only in elevated places in the neighborhood of the 
equator.” The stations in Southern Asia from which V. cardui 
has been reported, — Cashmere, Nepaul, Bootan, and Sikkim, — 
all lie on the flanks of the Himalayas, and the Nilgherry Hills are 
the highest elevations of the Indian peninsula. In the Alps of 
rope this insect flies to the snow level ; but in North America, 
although it may be regarded as one of the commonest butter- 
flies in the elevated central district, it is most abundant at a level 
of seven or eight thousand feet. Lieut. W. L. Carpenter and 
others have never found it above the timber line; but Dr. A. 
8. Packard, Jr., has taken it on Arapahoe Peak, between eleven 
and twelve thousand feet, and on Pike’s Peak from eight thousand 
feet to within five hundred or a thousand feet from the summit. 
Ye naturally inquire, Where did this cosmopolitan creature 
onginate? J udging from its present distribution alone, we should 
Probably answer: In the temperate parts of the Old World; 
because in the New World it has penetrated but a short distance 
into South America, and has established no colonies upon the 
neighboring islands, excepting on Cuba; while in the Old World 
i traits that separate the islands. East of Unalashka he knows of but two but- 
» à Pieris and a Polygonia. 
