THE 
journal. 
A Monthly Medium for Collectors and Students of Natural History. 
Address of Office : 369, EUSTON ROAD, LONDON, N.W. 
Vol. 1, No. 4. OCTOBER, 1892. One Penny. 
NOTES ON THE BUTTERFLIES OF EASTERN 
NORTH AMERICA. 
HE close resemblance which the Lepidopterous fauna 
of Eastern Canada and New England presents to 
that of North-Western Europe, is so striking as to 
furnish much matter for reflection for the thought¬ 
ful student of nature. During a brief residence lately in the 
province of Nova Scotia, I was struck by the fact that almost 
every genus of butterflies occuring in the British Isles Was also 
represented in Nova Scotia ; in several cases the species were 
identical, while in others the differences were so slight as to be 
hardly perceptible. If we were to seek for a cause for this 
similarity, speculation would at once establish the probability 
of a former communication between the two continents by 
means of which North America could have been stocked from 
Europe, and the subsequent lapse of time would account for the 
present differentiation of species. I believe that several repre* 
sentatives of European forms are also included in the Lepi- 
doptera of Western North America, but I have no work by me 
to consult in confirmation of this. However, it is certain as we 
proceed southward the insect life gradually changes until it 
finally becomes identical with the insect life of tropical America. 
Turning for a moment to the avian fauna , We find that the 
birds of the northern coasts of Europe are also common to the 
coasts of Eastern North America—especially those birds that 
range far to the northward, as ducks, divers, gulls, and birds of 
prey. Yet there is hardly a European bird to be found on the 
Western coast of North America, and it is therefore evident 
that the birds of the higher latitudes of Europe have a means 
