His feline companions arrived at Liege somewhat later, but it is understood that within twenty-four hours every one had reached his home. It is proposed to establish, at an early day, a regular system of cat communication between Liege and the neighbouring villages. A Cosmopolitan Butterfly.-Mr. S. Scudder gives the following sketch of the distribution of Vanessa cardui in the “American Naturalist" for July:— "There is but one butterfly whose range is so extended as to merit the name of cosmopolitan; it is the Painted Lady, or Vanessa cardui. With the exception of the Arctic regions and South America, it is distributed over the entire extent of every continent. Australia and New Zealand produce a race peculiar to themselves, while the other large islands south of Asia possess the normal type, which is also found upon small islands lying off the western borders of the Old World, the Azores, Canaries, Madeira, and St. Helena. On the other hand, it has not been discovered upon the small islands off the American coast, such as Guadaloupe, the Revillagegidos, and Galapagos on the western side, or the Bahamas and Bermudas on the eastern; neither does it occur in any of the Antilles, excepting Cuba, and there but rarely. It is reported, however, from islands lying in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, such as the Hawaiian group and Tahiti, but its actual occurrence there is at least doubtful. On the American continent, its southern boundaries will probably be found in Venezuela, New Granada, and Ecuador, but it is abundant even as far south as the highlands of Guatemala, and thence stretches northward over the entire breadth of the continent to the Arctic regions; on the eastern coast it has been found as far as Labrador, and on the west to the eastern shores of Behring's Straits. In the heart of the continent I have taken it upon the Saskatchewan, and Doubleday reports it from Martin's Falls; but Mr. W. H. Edwards does not recollect seeing it in the few collections he has examined from points farther north. As we see it flourishing in the colder regions of Europe and North America, so also is it found on all mountain heights; and Mr. H. W. Bates, writing of the whole genus, distinctly says it is 'found only in elevated places in the neighbourhood of the Equator.' The stations in Southern Asia from which V. cardui has been reported-Cashmere, Nepaul, Bootan, and Sikkim-all lie on the flanks of the Himalayas, and the Nilgherry Hills are the highest elevations of the Indian peninsula. In the Alps of Europe this insect flies to the snow level; but in North America, although it may be regarded as one of the commonest butterflies in the elevated central district, it is most abundant at a level of 7,000 or 8,000 feet. Lieut. W. L. Carpenter and others have never found it above the timber line; but Dr. A. S. Packard, jun., has taken it on Arapahoe Peak between 11,000 and 12,000 feet, and on Pike's Peak from 8,000 to within 500 or 1,000 feet from the summit." |