100 THE entomologist's RECORD. 



noticed this year (1895) about March 15th, in the northern part of the 

 island ; and at a moist spot in the otherwise dry bed of a river, where 

 they had apparently alighted to get moisture, the ground was quite 

 white with their wings, reminding one of what one sees at home 

 under the hawthorn trees when, after a sharp shower, the ground is 

 strewn with may-blossoms. The migration, for such it appeared to 

 be, commenced about 7 a.m., and lasted until noon, when there was a 

 lull, or temporary cessation of Hight, after which the movement 

 recommenced, and the insects continued to pass on in swarms as 

 before. Miss Gumming writes (Ta-n happi/ i/ears in Ceiilon, vol. i,, p, 

 208) : " One of the mysteries of the isle is the annual migration, in 

 November and December, and at intervals right on to February, of 

 countless myriads of butterflies in vast flights ; whence they come and 

 whither going no one can guess. The migration commences with the 

 setting in of the N.E. monsoon with its cool mornings and bright 

 days ; and when the stormy wind blows strongest, these delicate 

 insects, impelled by some inexplicable instinct, force their way 

 against it, and during a couple of months successive legions pass on 

 like an overflowing stream. I have collected a few notes of observa- 

 tions made on this subject in difterent years. Thus, in 1884, swarms 

 of dark-coloured butterflies passed over Kandy and Ratnapura on 

 November 19th. On the following day these were succeeded by swarms 

 of white and yellow ones. In 1887 Mr. Le Mesurier, writing from 

 Nuwara Eliya, noted the first flight of the season on November 18th ; 

 the flight lasted the whole day ; direction from due south-west to 

 north ; wind from south-west ; colour of butterflies speckled dark- 

 brown. The next flight he noticed was on November 21st, when two 

 kinds of butterflies, white and sulphur, continued all day passing right 

 over the summit of Pedro from north to due south ; the direction of 

 the wind was from the north-east. On December 10th, another 

 observer stated that brown and white butterflies had been in flight for 

 some days, flying south. In 1888, the migration northward in the 

 teeth of the wind was observed at Colombo on November 18th, the 

 great flight of white and yellow butterflies being mingled with some 

 of a darker colour. In 1889, flights were observed in the mountain 

 district of Dimbula, about the middle of October, and at Colombo on 

 November 5th, when dark brown butterflies and yellowish-white ones 

 flew in separate columns at a rate of about ten miles an hour. All the 

 accounts (which might be multiplied by observations from all parts of 

 the island, north, south, east, and west, from Manaar to Galle, and 

 from Trincomalee to Negombo) speak only of brown, white, 

 and yellow insects ; hence I infer that the glorious butterflies which 

 most delight us do not risk becoming food for fishes by any such 

 venturesome flights." Tennent says in his Nat. Hiatonj of Cci/lon : 

 " At times the extraordinary sight presents itself of flights of these 

 delicate creatures, generally of a white or pale yellow hue, apparently 

 miles in breadth, and of such prodigious extension as to occupy hours, 

 and even days, uninterruptedly in their passage — whence coming no 

 one knows, whither going no one can tell." He adds in a foot-note : 

 " The butterflies I have seen in these wonderful migrations in Ceylon 

 were mostly Callidri/aif Inlaria, C. alcmeonc and C'. j)yranthe, with 

 straggling individuals of the genus Enplnra — E. corns and E. prothoe. 

 Their passage took place in April and May, generally in a north- 



