]!HI THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



about July 71I1, seldom earlier, in backward seasons perhaps a week later, 

 the flight lasting only about ten days. Having previously found a low- 

 lying field, more or less swampy, with a good growth of scrub willows from 

 four to ten feet high, the food of the larva, we set out after supper, allowing 

 time to get on the ground a little before 8 o'clock. After getting the net 

 and bottles ready, it is well to look over the field, selecting a spot, if 

 possible, from which a good view over the bushes can be obtained, and 

 one that is free from very treacherous or boggy places, as it is often neces- 

 sary to move about rapidly. Cloudless evenings, with a light west wind, 

 seem to be the most favourable ; on cloudy nights the moths begin to fly 

 a few minutes earlier, showing that they wait for a certain degree of 

 darkness. 



Five minutes past eight, and there is nothing flying, and nothing to 

 indicate there ever will be, and we begin to get anxious as to whether 

 there will be any sport, our eyes fixed on the air over the willows. The 

 minutes pass — ten minutes past eight — now is the time. A shout comes 

 from one of the party, " Look out, there's one," and flying quickly over the 

 bushes, perhaps ten feet up, is seen a yeliowish-white object, a moth 

 expanding a little over three inches, with a long, thin body. There is no 

 mistaking it for anything else, the position and shape of wings in flight is 

 entirely unlike any other moth. We probably miss it as it passes by, but 

 it turns, and comes back a little further in the swamp, suddenly arrests in 

 its long flight, and begins to hover over a certain bush, dancing in the air, 

 backwards and forward, as if it were the ball of a pendulum having a 

 stroke of about two feet. Another moth of the same kind appears, 

 apparently from nowhere, and joins the other in its mad gambol. 

 Another, several more, til perhaps 12 or even 20 are all at it close together 

 in the air. Sometimes they are provokingly just out of reach of the net, 

 at other times it is easy to catch some of them. At the least touch of the 

 net they close their wings and drop either into it or outside. If the former 

 they are easily bottled, as -they usually remain quiet for a short time, but 

 it is well to be quick, for when they try to escape from the net the wings 

 vibrate so rapidly that the specimens are ruined by the rubbing against 

 the net. Those that fall to the ground or among the bushes are seldom 

 to be found in the fast disappearing daylight, but they generally fly up 

 again, sometimes to join the remainder of the dancers close by, sometimes 

 to rush off elsewhere. These assemblages usually last only a few minutes; 



