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Early Writers.—The earliest descriptions of North American butterflies are found in writings which are now almost unknown, except to the close student of science. Linnæus described and named a number of the commoner North American species, and some of them were figured by Charles Clerck, his pupil, whose work entitled "Icones" was published at Stockholm in the year 1759. Clerck's work is exceedingly rare, and the writer believes that he has in his possession the only copy in North America. Johann Christian Fabricius, a pupil of Linnæus, who was for some time a professor in Kiel, and attached to the court of the King of Denmark, published between the year 1775 and the year 1798 a number of works upon the general subject of entomology, in which he gave descriptions, very brief and unsatisfactory, of a number of North American species. His descriptions were written, as were those of Linnæus, in the Latin language. About the same time that Fabricius was publishing his works, Peter Cramer, a Dutchman, was engaged in giving to the world the four large quartos in which he endeavored to figure and describe the butterflies and moths of Asia, Africa, and America. Cramer's work was entitled "Papillons Exotiques," and contained recognizable illustrations of quite a number of the North American forms. The book, however, is rare and expensive to-day, but few copies of it being accessible to American students.

Jacob Hübner, who was born at Augsburg in the year 1761, undertook the publication, in the early part of the present century, of an elaborate work upon the European butterflies and moths, parallel with which he undertook a publication upon the butterflies and moths of foreign lands. The title of his work is "Sammlung Exotischer Schmetterlinge." To this work was added, as an appendix, partly by Hübner and partly by his successor and co-laborer, Karl Geyer, another, entitled "Zuträge zur Sammlung Exotischer Schmetterlinge." The two works together are illustrated by six hundred and sixty-four colored plates. This great publication contains some scattered figures of North American species. A good copy sells for from three hundred and fifty to four hundred dollars, or even more.

The first work which was devoted exclusively to an account of the lepidoptera of North America was published in England by Sir James Edward Smith, who was a botanist, and who gave to the world in two volumes some of the plates which had been drawn by John Abbot, an Englishman who lived for a number of years in Georgia. The work appeared in two folio volumes, bearing the date 1797. It is entitled "The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia." It contains one hundred and four plates, in which the insects are represented in their various stages upon their appropriate food-plants. Smith and Abbot's work contains original descriptions of only about half a dozen of the North American butterflies, and figures a number of species which had been already described by earlier authors. It is mainly devoted to the moths. This work is now rare and commands a very high price.

The next important work upon the subject was published by Dr. J.A. Boisduval of Paris, a celebrated entomologist, who was assisted by Major John E. Leconte. The work appeared in the year 1833, and is entitled "Histoire Générale et Monographie des Lepidoptères et des Chenilles de l'Amérique Septentrionale." It contains seventy-eight colored plates, each representing butterflies of North America, in many cases giving figures of the larva and the chrysalis as well as of the perfect insect. The plates were based very largely upon drawings made by John Abbot, and represent ninety-three species, while in the text there are only eighty-five species mentioned, some of which are not figured. What has been said of all the preceding works is also true of this: it is very rarely offered for sale, can only be found upon occasion, and commands a high price.

In the year 1841 Dr. Thaddeus William Harris published "A Report on the Insects of Massachusetts which are Injurious to Vegetation." This work, which was originally brought out in pursuance of an order of the legislature of Massachusetts, by the Commissioners of the Zoölogical and Botanical Survey of the State, was republished in 1842, and was followed by a third edition in 1852. The last edition, revised and improved by Charles L. Flint, Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, appeared in 1862. This work contains a number of figures and descriptions of the butterflies of New England, and, while now somewhat obsolete, still contains a great deal of valuable information, and is well worth being rescued by the student from the shelves of the second-hand book-stalls in which it is now and then to be found. For the New England student of entomology it remains to a greater or less extent a classic.

In 1860 the Smithsonian Institution published a "Catalogue of the Described Lepidoptera of North America," a compilation prepared by the Rev. John G. Morris. This work, though very far from complete, contains in a compact form much valuable information, largely extracted from the writings of previous authors. It is not illustrated.

With the book prepared by Dr. Morris the first period in the development of a literature relating to our subject may be said to close, and the reader will observe that until the end of the sixth decade of this century very little had been attempted in the way of systematically naming, describing, and illustrating the riches of the insect fauna of this continent. Almost all the work, with the exception of that done by Harris, Leconte, and Morris, had been done by European authors.

Later Writers.—At the close of the Civil War this country witnessed a great intellectual awakening, and every department of science began to find its zealous students. In the annals of entomology the year 1868 is memorable because of the issue of the first part of the great work by William H. Edwards, entitled "The Butterflies of North America." This work has been within the last year (1897) brought to completion with the publication of the third volume, and stands as a superb monument to the scientific attainments and the inextinguishable industry of its learned author. The three volumes are most superbly illustrated, and contain a wealth of original drawings, representing all the stages in the life-history of numerous species, which has never been surpassed. Unfortunately, while including a large number of the species known to inhabit North America, the book is nevertheless not what its title would seem to imply, and is far from complete, several hundreds of species not being represented in any way, either in the text or in the illustrations. In spite of this fact it will remain to the American student a classic, holding a place in the domain of entomology analogous to that which is held in the science of ornithology by the "Birds of America," by Audubon.

A work even more elaborate in its design and execution, contained in three volumes, is "The Butterflies of New England," by Dr. Samuel Hubbard Scudder, published in the year 1886. No more superbly illustrated and exhaustive monograph on any scientific subject has ever been published than this, and it must remain a lasting memorial of the colossal industry and vast learning of the author, one of the most eminent scientific men whom America has produced.

While the two great works which have been mentioned have illustrated to the highest degree not only the learning of their authors, but the vast advances which have been made in the art of illustration within the last thirty years, they do not stand alone as representing the activity of students in this field. A number of smaller, but useful, works have appeared from time to time. Among these must be mentioned "The Butterflies of the Eastern United States," by Professor G.H. French. This book, which contains four hundred and two pages and ninety-three figures in the text, was published in Philadelphia in 1886. It is an admirable little work, with the help of which the student may learn much in relation to the subject; but it greatly lacks in illustration, without which all such publications are not attractive or thoroughly useful to the student. In the same year appeared "The Butterflies of New England," by C.J. Maynard, a quarto containing seventy-two pages of text and eight colored plates, the latter very poor. In 1878 Herman Strecker of Reading, Pennsylvania, published a book entitled "Butterflies and Moths of North America," which is further entitled "A Complete Synonymical Catalogue." It gives only the synonymy of some four hundred and seventy species of butterflies, and has never been continued by the author, as was apparently his intention. It makes no mention of the moths, except upon the title-page. For the scientific student it has much value, but is of no value to a beginner. The same author published in parts a work illustrated by fifteen colored plates, entitled "Lepidoptera-Rhopaloceres and Heteroceres—Indigenous and Exotic," which came out from 1872 to 1879, and contains recognizable figures of many North American species.

In 1891 there appeared in Boston, from the pen of C.J. Maynard, a work entitled "A Manual of North American Butterflies." This is illustrated by ten very poorly executed plates and a number of equally poorly executed cuts in the text. The work is unfortunately characterized by a number of serious defects which make its use difficult and unsatisfactory for the correct determination of species and their classification.

In 1893 Dr. Scudder published two books, both of them useful, though brief, one of them entitled "The Life of a Butterfly," the other, "A Brief Guide to the Commoner Butterflies of the Northern United States and Canada." Both of these books were published in New York by Messrs. Henry Holt & Co., and contain valuable information in relation to the subject, being to a certain extent an advance upon another work published in 1881 by the same author and firm, entitled "Butterflies."

Periodical Literature.—The reader must not suppose that the only literature relating to the subject that we are considering is to be found in the volumes that have been mentioned. The original descriptions and the life-histories of a large number of the species of the butterflies of North America have originally appeared in the pages of scientific periodicals and in the journals and proceedings of different learned societies. Among the more important publications which are rich in information in regard to our theme may be mentioned the publications relating to entomology issued by the United States National Museum, the United States Department of Agriculture, and by the various American commonwealths, chief among the latter being Riley's "Missouri Reports." Exceedingly valuable are many of the papers contained in the "Transactions of the American Entomological Society," "Psyche," the "Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society" (1872–85), "Papilio" (1881–84), "Entomologica Americana" (1885–90), the "Journal of the New York Entomological Society," the "Canadian Entomologist," and "Entomological News." All of these journals are mines of original information, and the student who proposes to master the subject thoroughly will do well to obtain, if possible, complete sets of these periodicals, as well as of a number of others which might be mentioned, and to subscribe for such of them as are still being published.

There are a number of works upon general entomology, containing chapters upon the diurnal lepidoptera, which may be consulted with profit. Among the best of these are the following: "A Guide to the Study of Insects," by A.S. Packard, Jr., M.D. (Henry Holt & Co., New York, 1883, pp. 715, 8vo); "A Textbook of Entomology," by Alpheus S. Packard, M.D., etc. (The Macmillan Company, New York, 1898, pp. 729, 8vo); "A Manual for the Study of Insects," by John Henry Comstock (Comstock Publishing Company, Ithaca, New York, 1895, pp. 701, 8vo).

HUGO'S "FLOWER TO BUTTERFLY"

"Sweet, live with me, and let my love Be an enduring tether; Oh, wanton not from spot to spot, But let us dwell together. "You've come each morn to sip the sweets With which you found me dripping, Yet never knew it was not dew, But tears, that you were sipping. "You gambol over honey meads Where siren bees are humming; But mine the fate to watch and wait For my beloved's coming. "The sunshine that delights you now Shall fade to darkness gloomy; You should not fear if, biding here, You nestled closer to me. "So rest you, love, and be my love, That my enraptured blooming May fill your sight with tender light, Your wings with sweet perfuming. "Or, if you will not bide with me Upon this quiet heather, Oh, give me wing, thou beauteous thing, That we may soar together."

Eugene Field.