470 MIGRATION OF VARIOUS BIRDS AND INSECTS. 



drama, Sec, which, though closely resembling each other, are now 

 proved, by various and constant characters, to be distinct. There can, 

 however, be no doubt but that the painted-lady butterfly has an 

 amazingly wide range of geographical distribution, and I think it may 

 be fully accounted for by the strange wandering propensities of the 

 insect. 



Of this I have just witnessed a very remarkable example. I had 

 often observed this species to fly straight out to sea, and I have 

 noticed it at a considerable distance from land ; but, until within this 

 last fortnight, I never knew them travel in immense flocks. On the 

 8th of this month, (October, 1833,) this beautiful butterfly abounded 

 in all the gardens about this place ; upwards of twenty were counted 

 on one clump of dahlias ; and, at the same time, they were noticed in 

 equal abundance in a garden about half a mile distant from that in 

 which those dahlias grew. None had been previously observed in the 

 neighbourhood, and all that were seen on that day were very much 

 rubbed and injured, so that they had evidently been long excluded 

 from the chrysalis, and had perhaps travelled a considerable distance. 

 I was unable to ascertain the direction from which they came, neither 

 could I discover the route which they pursued ; for a single day the 

 species appeared every where in abundance, and the day after not one 

 was any where to be seen. On the morning of the tenth, however, I 

 observed a single one flying swiftly to the eastward ; and since that 

 time several others have been seen ; but, as these last were all perfect 

 and uninjured insects, I do not consider that they formed part of the 

 immense flight which passed this place on the eighth. It will be 

 remembered, also, that this same butterfly is the species which passed 

 in such incalculable multitudes through Switzerland some years ago ; 

 an occurrence, the description of which must be familiar to every 

 student of entomology. 



Does not this ascertained fact, of insects thus travelling in enormous 

 flocks from one district to another, explain, in some measure, the 

 sudden appearance of a particular species in vast numbers, in a neigh- 

 bourhood where it is usually considered rare ? It certainly does seem, 

 in many instances, to account for this phenomenon ; but still, it will 

 not equally apply in all. It would be wandering, however, from the 

 present subject, to treat on the wonderful irregularity of insect 

 appearance ; some curious facts concerning this I will reserve for a 

 future opportunity ; but it is nevertheless worthy of being observed 

 here, that the painted-lady butterfly, which is remarkable, in most 



