PAPILIO VIII. B. 
dozen being seen on a long range of coast. The first were noticed at the begin¬ 
ning of June. I think the rarity was produced by the want of the usual snow¬ 
fall the previous winter. The depth of snow is usually nine feet, but was only 
about two feet on the north shore in the winter of 1877-78. The food plants, 
namely, Angelica peregrina (not purpurea , as stated in the text to Plate VIII.), 
and the wild parsley were retarded by the cold weather. The first eggs were 
deposited 14th June, but a second batch was laid about middle of July. I 
brought larvce with me to Montreal in jelly glasses, and after the Angelica was 
exhausted, I fed them on wild parsley; but they eat very little of it and all 
dwindled away and died. But my friend, Mr. Napoleon Conneau, of Godbout, 
had some of the larvm, and has since written me that although his first trial with 
the caterpillars was not successful, he has now four which are progressing favor¬ 
ably.” These caterpillars reached chrysalis, and two of them were sent me by 
Mr. Couper, as I have mentioned. 
I am pleased at being able to represent the preparatory stages of Brevicauda 
in full, together with its food plant, Angelica peregrina, and to give its history as 
worked out so successfully by Mr. Couper. 
Note. Some delay in the issue of the present Part gives me an opportunity to add further 
information respecting Brevicauda and its history, kindly contributed by Mr. Mead. 
New York, September 23, 1880. 
Dear Mr. Edwards, — During my recent stay of three weeks in Newfound¬ 
land, I was very successful in obtaining caterpillars of P. Brevicauda along the 
shores of both Conception and Placentia Bays, on the peninsula of Avalon, which 
was the only part of the island visited. In climbing a mountain at Topsail, 
twelve miles from St. John’s, I noticed one of these butterflies sailing about the 
rocky summit, very much as P. Indrci is always seen to do in the Sierra Nevada. 
Like that species, it made long flights, rarely alighting, but apparently reconnoi- 
tering the whole mountain, as if in search of plants on which to lay its eggs. 
Chase would have been useless, so stationing myself on what appeared to be an 
attractive grassy spot among the rocks, I waited for the insect and captured it 
on the wing. It proved to be a female ; so confining it in a box uninjured, I 
made diligent search for plants on which it might lay eggs. But umbelliferous 
plants seemed very scarce throughout the country, and it was only by good for¬ 
tune that I noticed an Angelica growing in a field as we drove back toward St. 
John’s. The butterfly was confined with a stem of this plant, and laid nine eggs 
and then escaped. None of the eggs hatched, however. This failure I- attribute 
to their having been kept from the sunlight, for the caterpillars afterwards 
