=The White-J Butterfly or Compton Tortoise= _Eugonia J-album_ During bright days in March and April one is likely to find two kinds of butterflies on the wing in open glades of the woods. One is the familiar Mourning-cloak and the other is the Compton Tortoise--the latter generally much less abundant than the former. Both make the most of the brief periods of sunshine and quickly disappear when the sky is overcast. The Compton Tortoise butterflies which are thus abroad in early spring have been in hibernation since October. They are helping to carry the species over from one season to another, and as the days become longer and warmer they appear on the wing more and more, seeking such liquid food as the field and forest yields during the days of early spring. The sap exuding from holes in bark made by woodpeckers, or from the tappings of the maple trees by man, the nectar of willow catkins, the moisture of roadside pools--these help to yield a precarious sustenance to these butterflies after their long winter fast. They remain upon the wing week after week, while spring slowly progresses in the northern regions they inhabit. When at last the leaves push out on their food trees--willow, birch, and elm--the females lay their eggs and then, having lived to what for a butterfly is a ripe old age, they die, after nearly ten months of adult existence. Apparently the eggs are laid in clusters on the twigs, although this seems to be one of the many facts about butterflies awaiting observation by some careful student. The caterpillars feed together in small colonies but make no nest. They become full grown in about a month. They are then nearly two inches long with spinous, greenish bodies, striped with lighter lines. Some change to chrysalids about the middle of June and ten days later change again to butterflies, the first of which appear early in July while others continue to emerge for nearly a month.