The butterfly hunters

Preface

In offering this little volume to the public of youthful readers the author wishes to say that it has no claim to the completeness of a scientific treatise, but is merely the result of a summer's rambling through the woods and meadows of New England. It is, however, accurate as far as it goes. The illustrations have been dra;wn and engraved, with great care and accuracy, by Mr. Albert C. Russell, of Boston, from specimens in the author's collection, and all the descriptions have been carefully studied from nature. The volume is published with the hope that it will awaken in boys and girls a greater interest in the study of a delightful branch of natural history ; and the author will be fully satisfied if other Httle folks find in reading it as much pleasure as it has already given to a little boy named Tom, for whom it was written, and to whom it is fondly dedicated by his

MAMMA.

Contents

Chapter Page

I. Introductory i

11. The First Butterfly ...... 6

Chapter I. Introductory

NE beautiful evening in the early part of April, Rose and Hal Merton were standing together under the big Elm-tree which shaded the lawn in front of their father's house. They were looking down the long hill, up which wound a narrow country road, that passed under

the wide-spreading branches of the Elm, and then twisted

off round the foot of the mountain.

"Rose," said Hal, "I wonder what kind of a fellow

Cousin Tom is. I more than half wish father had not

invited him to spend the Summer with us."

Rose smiled, and pointed down the road. "You will soon find out what kind of a fellow he is," said she, "for there comes the carriage."

Hal and his sister turned and walked to the front gate, where they waited until Mr. Merton drove up and presented Tom to his cousins.

Tom Stewart was the only son of Mr. Merton's sister. His father was a wealthy Boston merchant, and Tom had passed all his life in the city home, his country experience being limited to Summer excursions with his parents to some fashionable resort. Close confinement to study, and lack of good, hearty exercise, had begun to show their effects upon Tom, and, although a tall, handsome boy of fourteen, he was pale and slender as a girl. It was to put color into his cheeks, and strength and vigor into his whole frame, that Mr. Stewart had sent him for the Summer to share the country sports of his cousins.

Tom was quite homesick the first evening at the farm-house, and had but little appetite for the fresh biscuits and baked apples and cream his Aunt Merton had prepared for his supper. Even the kind attention of Rose failed to cheer him up, and he was glad when the time came to take his candle and go up stairs to the neat little chamber he was to occupy during the Summer.

When Tom waked the next morning all the homesickness of the previous evening fell back heavy on his heart. He thought he never could and never would like the country, or anything about it. But by the time he was ready to go down to breakfast, the fresh air and clear morning sunlight began to exercise an exhilarating effect upon his spirits. Hal was whistling a lively tune out under the Elm, and Rose was singing as she sat at work on the front doorstep.

" Good morning, Tom," said she ; " are you rested yet ? Mother has saved breakfast for you, and I guess that by this time you must be very hungry."

" Have you had breakfast already ? " asked Tom.

"O yes, of course," said Rose, with a merry laugh, "several hours ago. But never mind. You will soon grow accustomed to country hours, and rise with the earliest."

Tom ate his breakfast with a good appetite, and then went out under the Elm to see what his cousin Hal was doing.

Hal was sitting on a large flat rock, and seemed to be very busy over something, but he looked up as Tom approached.

" Come and help me, Tom," said he ; " I caught my net in the bushes yesterday, and am trying to mend it."

" Your net, Hal ! Are you going fishing .? "

" O no, not to-day. Besides, do you suppose I could catch fish with this gauzy thing ? You will learn better than that before you have been here many weeks."

" What are you going to do with it, then ? "

" Well, you see, our class in school are just commencing the study of Lepidoptera, and — "

" Study of what ? " interrupted Tom.

" Why, don't you know ? The study of butterflies and moths. We catch specimens and take them to our schoolteaclier, who tells us all about them."

" Why, do you really catch them in nets } "

" Yes. I was out hunting all day yesterday ; but I had n't any luck at all, though I chased a dozen all over the fields. You see we have to begin hunting early in the season, because the various kinds of butterflies appear in different months, and it 's already time for the earhest to be creeping out. Those which come latest in the Autumn crawl into the cracks of barns and sheds, and sometimes into piles of wood, and live there through the Winter, and it is to hunt for these that I am going out to-morrow."

" What do you do with the butterflies when you have caught them ? " asked Tom.

" O, you '11 see. Rose will make you a net, and then you can go hunting with me. A few tramps over the mountain will do you good. As you look now, I would n't give much for you among us country boys at any sort of a game."

Tom was at first inclined to resent this uncomplimentary speech. Though of slighter form than Hal, he was already quite expert in gymnastic games, and his muscles were firm and nervous. But, as he looked at his stout and sturdy cousin, he thought it best not to boast too loudly.

Mending the torn net proved to be too nice a job for Hal's skill, and the boys went into the house to ask Rose's assistance.

Of course Tom must have a net too, so Hal immediately set to work upon the frame. He took a common flat barrel-hoop, and slit off a strip about a quarter of an inch in width. Of this he made a hoop about a foot in diameter, which he bound with wire to a light hickory rod of the thickness of a parasol handle and about three feet long. When he had completed his frame. Rose took a circular piece of mosquito-netting, about three quarters of a yard in diameter, and bound it firmly to the hoop, and the net was finished. Butterfly nets can be bought ready made ; but any boy who is handy with his knife can make his own. The frame should be light so as not to fatigue the hand, and at the same time strong enough to endure a good deal of rough work among the bushes. A piece of ratan from an old umbrella makes a good hoop ; and nothing is better for the handle than a farmer's goad-stick or wooden whip, which is light, strong, and not too elastic. Great attention should be paid to joining the handle to the hoop. If this is not firmly done, the frame may come in two when you are in hot pursuit of butterflies, and if you have not with you the means of repairing the damage, you may lose your whole day's sport.

THE BUTTERFLY HUNTERS.

Chapter II The First Butterfly

,N early Spring morning in New England possesses a sweet charm of its own, unequalled in any other part of the world. The warm rays of the sun melt the deep Winter snows and send merry rivulets dancing and sparkling down every hillside. The meadows are wet and soft, and all the hollows are miniature lakes, by which the green grass already shoots up in tall, slender spires. Along the roadside, and under the old stone walls, the dingy snow-banks waste rapidly away, giving place to banks of emerald turf and delicate wayside flowers.

It was on one of these sweet mornings that Hal, with his net and box and bottle of ether, started out with Tom to hunt for the first Spring butterfly, the Antiopa, which, after living all Winter in old buildings or wood-piles, creeps out to die in the warm April sunshine.

"Are we going to tramp all over the wet, splashy meadows ? " asked Tom.

" O no," answered Hal, " not to-day. But you need n't look so fearfully at the wet fields, for long before Summer is over I shall go straight through mud and water, and so will you. To-day we will only hunt round the barns and woodshed, although Mr. Benedict says the Antiopa is often found in warm, sunny places in the woods.

"Who is Mr. Benedict.?"

"He is our teacher. A real jolly man he is, too, and all the boys like him. But why did n't you bring out your net ? "

"Rose has not finished it yet. I shall catch about as much with the net in her work-basket as if I had it out here."

"Don't say that, Tom. But as your hands are empty, you may as well, carry my box."

" You don't expect to fill this big box to-day, do you ? "

"The box will hold 07ie, if I have the luck to catch it," said Hal, laughing. "But, you see, perhaps we shall hunt for nothing all day. Butterfly-hunting takes just as much patience and skill as fishing, only it is more active sport."

While they were talking, the two boys walked leisurely along through the yard back of Mr. Merton's house. They climbed over the bars, and went down the lane to the barn.

" Hal, what are you going to do with this ether ? " asked Tom. " The smell makes me feel just as if I was going to have a tooth pulled."

"I am going to serve the butterflies just as the dentist serves you," replied Hal. "Soon as I catch one I put a drop of this to its nose, and put it to sleep so that it will feel no pain. Then I fasten it with a pin to one of those pieces of cork you see in the box. I put the butterflies to sleep before taking them from the net, or else they would flutter and struggle so as to destroy all the delicate down on their wings. But you shall see. Come along."

The noon sun had spread its full glory of warmth and light through the air, and the boys stepped very cautiously, for Hal said they might find a butterfly hovering over any of the old logs that lay scattered about in the grass.

" Keep a little behind me, Tom," said Hal ; " for the Antiopa are very shy, and if I see one lighted I want to throw my net over it before anything starts it. This kind fly very high, and it is n't easy to chase them."

"Why, Hal, I thought you had just begun to study Lepi — What do you call it ? But you seem to know all about the habits of the butterflies now."

" Of course I have had to study some before beginning to catch them," replied Hal; "and, besides, last Autumn I hunted and found a few, but I was awkward then, and tore them all to pieces trying to arrange them on the corks. — Stop ! stop ! There 's one lighted on that old log."

Hal stole softly along, and threw his net, but the beautiful insect floated up over the roof of the barn, and finally lighted far above Hal's reach. Hal did not stop to reply to Tom's loud, ringing laugh, but went on quietly looking for more butterflies, turning every now and then to see whether the first one had flown from the roof It soon darted off over the other side of the building, and Hal chased after it, leaving his cousin behind. Very soon Tom heard Hal calling for the box and ether.

When Tom came up, Hal had gathered the net up into a bunch, confining the insect in a small space. He was holding it very carefully to keep it quiet, until he could put it to sleep with a drop of ether. Tom held the bottle, while Hal with a delicate brush dropped a little ether on the butterfly's head. The insect soon ceased moving, and Hal then fastened it by means of a long, slender pin to one of the corks in his box, and spread out its wings so as to show all the beauty and variety of the colors.

"You punch it with your ugly pin as if it was dead instead of asleep," said Tom.

" Yes, I know I do ; and perhaps it is dead," replied Hal, all the while busily arranging the wings before they grew stiff and brittle. "Sometimes they wake up," he continued, "and then I have to give them another dose of ether."

It was now nearly time for dinner, and the boys turned to go into the house. In the yard Hal succeeded in catching two more butterflies of the same kind.

"Why do you keep so many just alike.?" asked Tom.

"The specimens are not always perfect," answered Hal, lO THE BUTTERFLY HUNTERS.

"and then we want a pair in our collection. The female is always larger and more beautiful in color than the male. Besides, with many butterflies the under side is quite as interesting to examine as the upper. So we catch all we can, and afterwards select the finest specimens to keep."

The boys stopped to show their specimens to Rose, who was waiting for them in the doorway. All three then went in to dinner.

In the evening Hal and Tom went over to the school-house, v/here they found Mr. Benedict, the teacher, who was a great favorite with the boys, sitting in one of the recitation-rooms. About twenty boys were gathered near him, and on the table at his side lay several large books and a number of small boxes. The boys were all talking eagerly; and Frankie Mason, a bright-eyed little fellow of ten, was telling the teacher how hard he had worked all day without catching a single butterfly, when the door opened, and Hal and Tom, with Johnny Webb, came in with their boxes, and laid them on the table. The boys then took their seats, and Mr. Benedict commenced as follows.

" In the beginning I shall make our study as simple as possible, and leave all the difficult things till we are better able to understand them. We will study the butterflies by what we can see with the naked eye, because very few of you possess microscopes."

The teacher stopped and turned to his table. Each boyhad brought his specimen in a neat paper box, on which his own name was written, so that Mr. Benedict might know whose butterfly was the best preserved. He smiled as he looked at some of them, for they were torn, and the down on the wings nearly rubbed off.

" That 's mine," said one of the big boys, as the teacher laughingly held up one forlorn insect, of which little was remaining save the body and a broken piece of a wing. " I brought it to show you I had tried."

"Never mind, Gilbert," said the teacher, "to catch the butterfly at all is better than nothing. Only next time you must handle it with more delicate fingers."

After looking over all that had been brought in, the teacher told the boys that he should make the Antiopa the subject of this lesson, although several boys had found specimens of other early varieties. The Antiopa, having lived over Winter, was properly the first one to be considered. Hal's specimens were very well arranged, but Johnny Webb had found a more perfect insect, so the teacher selected the latter specimen to show to the boys.

"The Antiopa," said he, "belongs to the genus Vanessa, because the wings are jagged or tailed on the hind edge. The wings expand from three to three and a half inches." He held up Johnny's box in his hand, and all the boys looked eagerly at the beautiful insect expanded in it.

THE BUTTERFLY HUNTERS.

"You see the wings are of a purplish-brown color, with a broad bufF-yellow border. Just inside the border is a row of pale blue spots. Even this fine specimen," he

The Antiopa.

continued, ** is somewhat faded, as these butterflies always are in the Spring. The butterflies of this brood which are flying about now will very soon die. They will first deposit their eggs on the Elm and Willow trees, where the caterpillar lives after it is hatched, until about the first of July, when it becomes a chrysalis. The butterfly breaks the chrysalis in about two weeks, and when it first creeps out and spreads its fresh wings in the sunshine, the color on them is very brilliant and rich as velvet. This brood of Antiopa is very short lived. It deposits its eggs and dies, and a second brood of caterpillars is hatched, which goes through all the changes, producing the butterfly again before Winter. In the Autumn you will find these butterflies hovering over the heaps of apples in the orchard, and that will be the best time to secure them for your collection."

THE BUTTERFLY HUNTERS.

Chapter III. Flowers And Butterflies

EVERAL weeks after the first hunt for the Antiopa, Tom and Hal, together with Hal's cousin, Johnny Webb, started off one bright May morning to hunt for the small yellow butterflies, which Mr. Benedict had said they would find flying about in the sunny fields.

It was yet too early in the morning for butterflies to be out, for they keep very quiet until the sun has dried the dew from the grass and flowers, so that they can fly without fear of injuring their delicate wings. But the boys had started off" early to have a hunt for flowers and moss for Rose to arrange in her vases. They crossed the road in front of Mr. Merton's house, and climbed over the wall into the pasture. A lot of sleek, sober-looking cows were nipping the short green grass, and lifted their noses with a good-morning sniff" as the boys passed.

"Let 's walk all round by the wall," said Johnn}^ "and when we get to the farther corner, where the nut-trees are, we '11 climb over into the Birch-grove. Early Saxifrage grows there, and I told Rose I 'd bring her home a bunch of it."

" Hallo, there 's our Fort," said Hal. The boys stopped and examined with great interest a big square enclosed with a stone wall, which it had taken Hal and some other village boys the whole of a last Autumn's holiday to build. The Winter frost had displaced many of the stones, and one side was quite thrown down. "All open to the enemy," said Hal, as he walked up to the breach. "Don't you remember," he added, " how old Farmer Rogers, in his long blue frock, chased us and yelled at us because we stole a whole heap of his cider apples for shot and shell .? "

"Yes," said Johnny, soberly; "and father was so sorry about it, that he sent the old man a barrel of our best Baldwins in return."

" It was a mean trick in us boys, any way," said Hal.

' Only see the Violets and Anemones," said Johnny. The boys looked down under the Alders by the wall, and were soon on their knees, plucking handfuls of the delicate Wind-flowers and Violets. Before they reached the nut-tree corner, they had gathered great bunches of Dandelions, Liverwort, and Wild Geranium.

" Chip, chip, chip," said Hal, as a striped squirrel darted nimbly past them. The squirrels- had a whole colony of little burrows in the nut-tree corner, and might be seen having a grand frolic there any warm sunny day.

When the boys reached the corner, Tom threw himself down under one of the trees, right into a whole bed of blue Liverwort, and began to arrange the flowers he had gathered. Johnny climbed over the wall into the Birch-grove, after Early Saxifrage, and soon came back with his hands full.

The boys soon gathered so many flowers that they agreed to leave them under the nut-trees while they went ofi' for butterflies.

" Let 's separate," said Hal, " and each see what he can do alone. Then afterwards we will all meet here again. Hallo, there goes a butterfly, now," — and saying this, ofl" he darted after it, going over the wall and up the side of the hill, almost as fast as the insect he was chasing.

Johnny went to a little pool of water and dipped some Birch branches in it, which he brought carefully back and laid over the flowers to keep them fresh and protect them from the sun, and then he and Tom started off in opposite directions.

In about an hour the boys met again at the nut-tree corner.

" Well, Tom, you have got your box full, of course," said Hal, as he sat down on the grass to take breath, and, throwing off his cap, pushed his damp, curly hair back from his forehead.

"Now, Hal, you are too bad. You know I never tried before," said Tom ; " but I have done as well as Gilbert did, any way."

He opened his little box and showed Hal and Johnny a poor crushed insect, with its legs and antennae all broken off.

" Now see here," said Hal, " I 've caught six."

"Look at that one," said Johnny, "with a beautiful shaded border."

" Yes," repHed Hal, " that is a female butterfly. Mr. Benedict described it to me. I only caught one, although I chased another half-way down the other side of the hill. Now, Johnny, show us your boxful."

Johnny laughed, and put his box away in his pocket. " The warm sun made the things too lively," said he ; "I had a hard run, and threw my net ever so many times, but the butterflies always darted ofl" into the air. And all the while I could see you off on the hill, down on your knees and boxing them up."

The boys gathered up their flowers and went home. Johnny gave a large bunch of the Saxifrage to Rose, and carried the rest home to his sister Annie.

In the evening the boys all met again at the school-room. Mr. Benedict was much gratified to find the boys taking so much interest in their study, and he praised them for the number of specimens they had brought, and for the careful manner in which most of them had been prepared.

"These beautiful yellow butterflies," said he, "belong to the genus Colias, and are distinguished by the following peculiarities : six legs, short antennae thickened towards the end, and — "

" Antennae. Do you mean those horns ? " interrupted little Frank Mason.

The teacher encouraged all such questions, but could not help laughing at Frank's eager manner.

" O yes, Frank," said he, " those are what I mean, and you may call them horns if you choose. There is time enough for a little boy like you to learn the proper names. You see," he continued, " that the horns are thicker toward the end. The color of the wings is bright yellow, with a black border. On the female of this butterfly this border is very broad on the fore wings and beautifully shaded. The fore wings have a small black dot near the centre. This dot is just alike on both sides, while the round orange-colored spot on the middle of the upper side of the hind wings is replaced on the under side by a silvery spot with a rusty looking ring round it. The hind wings are rounded and have a smooth edge, and near the margin on the under side are three delicate dots.

"The male of this butterfly is smaller than the female, and the black on the border of its wings is more dense in color.

"This butterfly's name is Colias Philodice. It is very fond of Clover, and often deposits its eggs upon it."

" Does it live all Summer ? " asked Gilbert. " I remember seeing some that looked just like it, hovering over father's late Clover last Autumn."

Colias Philodice.

"No," replied Mr. Benedict, "this early brood will all disappear, and about the first of August another brood will come out. The late brood is much more numerous than this early one. These butterflies will often fly in such quantities in fields where the late Clover is in bloom, that you could not throw your net without catching three or four at one time. Now, boys," he continued, "there is a very large and beautiful butterfly , which appears about the last of May, and when you are out hunting specimens for next week's lesson, I want you to look for it. It is of a beautiful lemon yellow, ornamented with black stripes. This butterfly is as large as any we have. You must look for it in warm and sunny places. Very few butterflies live in the woods, and those that do, such as the Hipparchians, come much later in the season. At this time of the year they fly about in the open fields and by the roadside. They delight to hover over the bushes that fringe the old stone walls. You will find them in these places any sunny afternoon."

After giving them these directions, Mr, Benedict dismissed the boys. As they went out they all passed up by his desk, and he returned each boy the little box he had brought containing specimens.

Chapter IV. A Rainy Morning

T was a sweet moonlight evening, and Tom and Hal " walked slowly home with Johnny Webb. Rose was spending the evening with Annie, and the boys were to call for her on their way home.

Mr. Webb's house was a large farm-house, standing with its gable towards the road, as so many of the New England farm-houses were built long ago. The boys opened a little wooden gate and walked towards the house between two rows of Syringa and Lilac bushes, until they reached the porch, where they found the girls. Annie, who was lame from the effects of a fall received when she was a very little girl, was lying on a lounge, which Mrs. Webb had drawn to the door for her, her sweet pale face looking lovely and quiet as the moon shone upon it. Rose sat upon a low seat by her side.

" Come, Johnny," said Annie, " tell me what the lesson was about to-night."

" O Annie ! Mr. Benedict says we must hunt next week for the biggest butterfly you ever saw."

Annie laughed heartily at Johnny's boyish eagerness.

"I saw some of those great yellow butterflies he told about, in a Museum once, under a glass," said Tom ; " and I thought then they were painted instead of being real butterflies."

"I 've often seen them flying about," said Hal, "and once I caught a big one in my cap, but he was broken all to pieces and I threw him away."

" Well," said Johnny, " now Mr. Benedict has taught us how to use nets, I think I can catch one without breaking it."

"Annie, don't you feel very tired sitting still here all these pleasant Spring days ? " asked Tom.

" O no," she repUed ; " I can look out of the window and watch mother working among her flowers ; and then Johnny is such a good boy, and brings me in mosses and wild-flowers almost every day. Only I do long sometimes to be out in the woods myself, and feel the soft Pine carpet under my feet and hear the roar of the wind in the treetops."

"And so you shall, Annie," said Hal. "Some warm day I will carry you to the woods myself"

Then the boys told the girls that after a while they were going to have a grand picnic in the grove at the Den Rocks, and Mrs. Webb said if Annie was well enough she should be carried to the grove to enjoy it with them.

It was now time to go home; and after saying good night to Annie and Johnny, Rose and the two boys walked up the hill to Mr. Merton's house.

A few days after this Hal and Tom laid a grand plan, that, as the next day was Saturday, and there would be no school, they would have a hunt for butterflies, and afterwards come home through the Rail Swamp to get some Rhodora and Shad-flowers for Annie. But Saturday morning dawned and the boys were sorry enough to find a heavy rain pouring down, and the dismal prospect before them of spending a day in-doors. After breakfast they sat down and tried to look over Hal's book on butterflies, to see if , they could find out anything more about the big yellow one they were going to hunt for. They read a little while, but the big words puzzled them, and, besides, they were possessed with that restlessness peculiar to boys when they are made to stay in the house against their will. Finally Tom threw the book impatiently on the table.