78 
LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
The Black Swallowtail (P. Asterms^ Boisd.)^ 
found on the barren and icebound shores of New- 
foundland^ is also numerous here. It is a very 
elegant species, the black ground being relieved 
with macular bands of yellow, and on the hind 
wings by a series of bright azure clouds. The 
Archippus, too {Danais Archippus)^ with his broad 
wings of orange tawny handsomely striped with 
blacli, probes the mellifluous blossoms from morning 
to night, and is one of the most conspicuous flut- 
terers on the prairie. But a more beautiful species 
than all these is the Green-clouded Swallowtail 
(P. Troilus, Boisd.). It is, however, rare, as I 
have only as yet seen a single specimen. The 
wings are black, the fore pair having a row of 
yellow-green spots at the margin, the hind pair 
having a similar row of crescents, and the whole 
disk sprinkled with a large cloud of bright green 
dots. Beneath, the hind wings have two rows of 
large crescent spots of bright orange, and a row 
between them of clouds of dots (fascice)^ all of 
which are blue except the third from the hinder 
angle, which is green. Among those of humbler 
birth,— for these gorgeous swallowtails seem to be 
of royal blood, to have a presence that distinguishes 
them from the meaner herd,— I may mention the 
Painted Beauty [Cynthia Huntera) as one not infe- 
rior, though of a form more familiar to an English 
eye. It is so much like the Painted Lady of 
Europe [C. cardui), that one would be tempted to 
think it the same, a little varying on account of 
difference of food and climate, were not that species 
likewise found on this continent in nowise altered. 
This has the same tints as that, and distributed in 
a similar way, and particularly the same exquisite 
