The Least Skipper differs from the other Skippers both in structure and habits. Most of these butterflies have thick bodies and a distinct hook at the end of each antenna. This has a slender body and the antennae lack the hook. Most Skippers have strong wings and show their strength in their rapid, erratic flight. This has feeble wings that show their weakness in their slow, straight flight. But from the fact that it is about the smallest of all our butterflies, expanding little more than three quarters of an inch, it deserves our interested attention. The tawny wings are so marked with broad margins of dark brown that they show the tawny tinge chiefly in the middle spaces. On account of its small size and its retiring habits this little butterfly is often overlooked by all but the most experienced collectors. It generally flies slowly just above the grass in sunny places in wet meadows and along the open margins of brooks and marshes. It rests frequently upon grasses, flowers, or bushes. Mr. Scudder noticed that when resting these butterflies have the curious habit of "moving their antennae in a small circle, the motion of the two alternating; that is, when one is moving in a forward direction, the other is passing in a reverse direction." This is the sort of observation that should challenge us all to sharper wits in watching living butterflies. It would be strange if no others thus twirled their feelers in their leisure moments. Who will find out? The female butterflies at least have something to do besides sipping the nectar of flowers or idly twirling their feelers. They must lay their eggs and thus provide for the continuation of the species; to do this they find suitable blades of grass on which they deposit their tiny, half-round, smooth yellow eggs. A week or so later each egg hatches into a dumpy little yellow caterpillar with a black head and a body well covered with hairy bristles. This little creature is a silk spinner and makes a home instinctively by drawing together more or less the outer edges of a leaf blade and fastening them with transverse bands of silk. It then feeds upon the green tissues and as it grows larger it makes its nest more secure by thicker walls of silken web. When full grown as a caterpillar it changes into a slender chrysalis generally of a grayish red color, thickly dotted with black. About ten days later it emerges as a butterfly. The Least Skipper is one of the most widely distributed of all butterflies. It occurs from New England to Texas, south to Florida on the east coast, and west to the Rocky Mountains. THE END GENERAL INDEX