THE BKOWX-TAIL MOTH. 49 



around which the insects hovered seemed indeed to be the 

 centres of miniature snow-storms. Whik' the moths -were 

 swarming on the niglit of the 12th, the wind came fresh 

 and strong out of tlie south to south-west, blowing steadily 

 at the rate of twelve to sixteen miles per hour. After mid- 

 night it increased in velocity to twent}^ miles an hour at 2 

 A.M. (Jul}^ 13), twenty-five miles an hour at 8 a.m., twenty- 

 eight to thirt}^ miles an hour at noon, thirty-five miles at 5 

 P.M., and reached the maximum velocit}^ of forty miles an 

 hour late in the afternoon. By midnight the gale had de- 

 creased to fourteen miles an hour, but increased again 

 rapidly, reaching a velocity of twenty miles an hour at 2 

 A.M., July 14, and forty-eight miles an hour at 8.40 a.m., 

 then decreased to thirty miles at noon and twenty miles at 

 6 P.M. The day movement of the wind is not important, 

 as the moths are nocturnal, but it was soon apparent that 

 the wind of the nights of July 12 and 18 had transported 

 the flying insects into many cities and towns lying to the 

 nortliAvard, while to the south the distribution w^as limited. 

 Some two or three years were necessary before the increase 

 of the moth in the new localities Avas sufficient to call atten- 

 tion to its presence ; but by the fall of 1899 it had been found 

 scattered from Somerville nortliAvard to the State line at 

 Methuen and eastward to Seabrook, N. II., — a point some 

 forty miles distant from the original colon}'. In the spring 

 of 1902 the nests of the moth could be seen easily from 

 the car Avindows in every town along the eastern division of 

 the Boston & Maine Kailroad from Boston to Portsmouth, 

 N. n. The occurrence of tlie moth at Kittery, Me., Avas 

 reported in 189!) l)v the late Prof. F. L. Harvey, Orono, 

 Me. The Kittery occurrence Avas doubtless due to the 

 transi)ortation of household goods from a badly infested 

 Somerville estate at a time when the insect Avas in the co- 

 coon staije. Kecentlv, Prof. James Fletcher, the distin- 

 guished C'anadian entomologist, has reported the occurrence 

 of the mature moth at St. John, N. B. In the absence of 

 evidence to the contrary, he believes that the insect avjis 

 transported on the steamers plying betAvecn Boston and St. 

 John. This vicAV is a logical one, for the trees on the islands 



