A large yellow butterfly

June 3

Friday. P. M. — Up Assabet. 

Female Eastern tiger swallowtail 

(Papilio glaucus ) (Wikipedia)

A large yellow butterfly (somewhat Harris Papilio Asterias like but not black-winged) three and a half to four inches in expanse. Pale-yellow, the front wings crossed by three or four black bars; rear, or outer edge, of all wings widely bordered with black, and some yellow behind it; a short black tail to each hind one, with two blue spots in front of two red-brown ones on the tail. (P. Turnus?)

Arenaria lateriflora well out, how long? 

Common rum cherry out yesterday, how long? 

Carex crinita out a good while. Carex lanuginosa, Smith's shore, green fruit. Carex pallescens, Smith's shore (higher up bank), green fruit. 

Nighthawk, two eggs, fresh. 

Quail heard.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 3, 1859

A large yellow butterfly . . . (P. Turnus?).See May 28, 1855 ("Large yellow and black butterfly."); June 11, 1856 ("Saw yesterday a great yellow butterfly with black marks."); June 14, 1860 ("I see near at hand two of those large yellow (and black) butterflies which I have probably seen nearly a month . They rest on the mud near a brook. Two and three quarters to three inches in alar extent; yellow with a broad black border, outside of which a row of small yellow spots; three or four black marks transversely to the fore wings, and two fine lines parallel with the body on the hinder (?) wings; a small and slender swallow tail with reddish brown and blue at the tail; body black above and yellow along the sides. (C. says it is the Papilio Turnus of Say.)"). See also Lewis Hyde,  What Thoreau knew about butterflies :

"What he’s seen is the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail whose scientific name at the time was Papilio turnus. He seems unsure of that, however, and guesses that it’s Papilio asterias, the name properly belonging to the Black Swallowtail. The parenthetical question mark suggests that he knows he’s not sure and the name Harris indicates that he knows where to turn for help: Thaddeus William Harris . . .  In the entry for June 14, 1860 . . . Thoreau gives the correct scientific name of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. After a clear description (“a small and slender swallow tail with reddish brown and blue at the tail,” etc.) he adds a note: “C[hanning] says itis the Papilio Turnus of Say”. Thomas Say was another nineteenth-century entomologist whose three-volume master work, American Entomology, was originally published in the 1820s. In the Journal, however, Say does not appear until this entry in 1860, plausibly because in 1859 another entomologist, John Lawrence LeConte, had published a two-volume version of Say’s 1820 edition. LeConte’s edition has a fine color plate of the Tiger Swallowtail; William Ellery Channing must have seen it, whereupon, one year later, Thoreau is sure of the name."

Tiger swallowtails, hand-colored engraving by Cornelis Tiebout 

after drawings by Titian R. Peale, 

called Papilio turnus by Thomas Say, 

in his American Entomology, vol. 3, 1824-28

According to Harris "The caterpillar of the Turnus butterfly  lives upon the leaves of apple and wild-cherry trees. It is of a green color above  with little blue dots in rows, a yellow eye-spot with a black centre on each side of the third segment, a yellow and black band across the fourth segment , and the head, belly, and legs are pink. It suspends itself and becomes a chrysalis about the first of August, and is not changed to a butterfly till the month of June in the following summer."  See July 15, 1851 ("Slow- moving green worms, with rings spotted black and yellow, like an East Indian production.")

Arenaria lateriflora well out, how long? See June 6, 1852 ("The side-flowering sandwort, an inconspicuous white flower like a chickweed."); June 5, 1855 ("Side-flowering sandwort apparently three days out in Clamshell flat meadow."); June 10, 1856 ("Side-flowering sandwort abundantly out this side of Dugan Spring."); June 13, 1858 ("Arenaria lateriflora, how long?")

Nighthawk, two eggs, fresh.  See May 30, 1860 ("On the wall, at the brook behind Cyrus Hosmer’s barn, I start a nighthawk within a rod or two. It alights again on his barn-yard board fence, sitting diagonally. I see the white spot on the edge of its wings as it sits. It flies thence and alights on the ground in his corn-field, sitting flat, but there was no nest under it. This was unusual. Had it not a nest nearby?") June 1, 1853 ("Walking up this side-hill, I disturb a nighthawk eight or ten feet from me . .Without moving, I look about and see its two eggs on the bare ground, on a slight shelf of the hill, on the dead pine-needles and sand, without any cavity or nest whatever."); June 7, 1853 ("Visit my nighthawk on her nest. . . . The sight of this creature sitting on its eggs impresses me with the venerableness of the globe"); June 5, 1854 ("Now, just be fore sundown, a nighthawk is circling, imp-like, with undulating, irregular flight over the sprout-land on the Cliff Hill, with an occasional squeak and showing the spots on his wings. He does not circle away from this place, and I associate him with two gray eggs somewhere on the ground beneath and a mate there sitting. ")  See also  A Book of Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau,, the Nighthawk

Signs of the season

August 15

That clear ring like an alder locust (is it a cricket?) for some time past is a sound which belongs to the season. Birds fly in flocks.

I see a dense, compact flock of bobolinks going off in the air over a field. They cover the rails and alders, and go rustling off with a brassy, tinkling note as I approach, revealing their yellow breasts and bellies. This is an autumnal sight, that small flock of grown birds in the afternoon sky.

Now a sudden gust of wind blows from the northwest, cooled by a storm there, blowing the dust from roads far over the fields.

Elder-berry ripe. 

Some naked viburnum berries are quite dark purple amid the red, while other bunches are wholly green yet. 

The red choke-berry is small and green still. I plainly distinguish it, also, by its woolly under side. 

Some cranberries turned red on one cheek along the edges of the meadows. 

The swamp blackberry begins.

See a blue heron on the meadow.

In E. Hubbard's swamp I gather some large and juicy and agreeable rum cherries. They are much finer than the small ones on large trees; quite a good fruit. The birds make much account of them.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 15, 1852

That clear ring like an alder locust (is it a cricket ?) See   August 4, 1851 ("I hear the note of a cricket, and am penetrated with the sense of autumn."); August 4, 1856 ( "Have heard the alder cricket some days. The turning-point is reached."); August 9, 1857 ("Hear the shrilling of my alder locust."); August 11, 1852 ("The autumnal ring of the alder locust."); August 13, 1860 ("Hear the steady shrill of the alder locust"); August 18, 1856 ("I hear the steady shrilling of . . .the alder cricket, clear, loud, and autumnal, a season sound. . . . It reminds me of past autumns and the lapse of time, suggests a pleasing, thoughtful melancholy,")

That small flock of grown birds in the afternoon sky. See August 9, 1857 ("I see the blackbirds flying in flocks."): . August 15, 1854 ("I see large flocks of bobolinks on the Union Turnpike");August 16, 1858 ("I hear . . . the link of many bobolinks (and see large flocks on the fences and weeds; they are largish-looking birds with yellow throats) . . .Channing tells me that he saw a white bobolink in a large flock of them to-day."); August 19, 1853 ("Flocks of bobolinks go tinkling along about the low willows.") August 19, 1852 ("The small fruits of most plants are now generally ripe or ripening, and this is coincident with the flying in flocks of such young birds now grown as feed on them"); August 26, 1859 ("Bobolinks fly in flocks more and more.") A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Bobolink

Some naked viburnum berries are quite dark purple amid the red, while other bunches are wholly green yet. See August 25, 1854 ("The Viburnum nudum berries, in various stages, — green, deep-pink, and also deep-blue, not purple or ripe, — are very abundant at Shadbush Meadow. They appear to be now in their prime and are quite sweet, but have a large seed. Interesting for the various colors on the same bush and in the same cluster.") See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, Viburnum lentago  (nannyberry)

See a blue heron on the meadow.  See  August 15, 1860 ("See a blue heron.") See also   August 12, 1853 ("See the blue herons opposite Fair Haven Hill, as if they had bred here."); August 14, 1859 ("You have not seen our weedy river, you do not know the significance of its weedy bars, until you have seen the blue heron wading and pluming itself on it");  August 19, 1858  ("The blue heron has within a week reappeared in our meadows")  and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Blue Heron

An autumnal sight

this compact flock of bobolinks –

the afternoon sky.

Cannabis sativa, apparently out.

August 11.

To Contantum.

The mountain-ash berries are turning. We had a ripe watermelon on the 7th. I see the great yellow flowers of the squash amid the potatoes in the garden, one of the largest yellow flowers we have. How fat and rich! Of course it is long since they blossomed. Green corn begins.

The autumnal ring of the alder locust. White lilies are not very numerous now.

The skunk-cabbage leaves are fallen and decaying, and their fruit is black. Their fall is earlier than that of other plants.

I am attracted by the clear dark-green leaves of the fever-bush. The rum cherry is ripe.

The Collinsonia Canadensis just begun. The great trumpet-weeds now fairly out. Sumach berries now generally red. Some naked viburnum berries are red. The sweet viburnum turning.

The larger skull-cap is quite an important and interesting flower.

Platanthera blephariglottis, white fringed orchis.

This side of Hubbard's Meadow Bridge, Lespedeza hirta (hairy), Cannabis sativa, apparently out.

Aster corymbosus, path beyond Corner Spring and in Miles Swamp.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 11, 1852

Cannabis sativa, apparently out. See August 4, 1854 ("Cannabis sativa")

Platanthera blephariglottis, white fringed orchis. See August 8, 1858 ("I find at Ledum Swamp, near the pool, the white fringed orchis, quite abundant but past prime, only a few, yet quite fresh. It seems to belong to this sphagnous swamp and is some fifteen to twenty inches high, quite conspicuous, its white spike, amid the prevailing green. The leaves are narrow, half folded, and almost insignificant. It loves, then, these cold bogs.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The White Fringed Orchis

Aster corymbosus, path beyond Corner Spring and in Miles Swamp. See August 9, 1856 ("What I have called Aster corymbosus out a day, above Hemlocks. . . .")

August 11.  See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, August 11

 

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau

"A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality.”

~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2021