236 THE entomologist's record. 



alighting here and there on lamp-posts, signboards, or in the more 

 rural parts on flowers. They nearly all looked worn and shattered, 

 and there were no fresh specimens among them, clearly indicating that 

 they were not raised in the neighbourhood of the city but had come 

 from different parts. On the iHth some of the stragglers were still to 

 be seen, but on the 19th they had all disappeared. The second 

 migration took place last fall (1863) but did not reach Han Francisco 

 . By comparing notes received from Mr. .Johnson, of Marin 

 County, I have come to the conclusion that the country to the north- 

 ward crowded with this Vanessid {KiKjonia calif arnica), must have sent 

 at least one colony south ; and I was told by the above-mentioned 

 gentleman, the statement being confirmed by many intelligent farmers 

 of the same neighDourhood, that large numbers of a brown butterfly 

 had come from San Quentin and occurred over that part of the bay 

 which stretches between San Rafael and Saucelito. About the same 

 time, great numbers of the same insect were observed in Lagunita 

 Valley, at the base of Tamal Pais, where the swarms gathered in a 

 great crowd and disappeared as suddenly as they came." 



It has been fre(]uently noticed that when Pi/raineis card id is making 

 one of its migratory movements, nothing appears to stop it, and 

 specimens have been seen ascending and crossing the highest Alps, or 

 have been picked up dead on the snow. Kiii/onia califuniica appears 

 to act in much the same manner. On August 29th, 1889, during an 

 ascent of Mount Shasta, Hopkins records {Insect Life, ii., p. 355) the 

 flight of countless myriads of these butterflies at an altitude far above 

 the snow-line. He writes : "In our early morning climb we had left 

 our horses at half past four o'clock at very near the snow-line, where, 

 indeed, there were many small snow-flelds close about us. Our 

 progress was very slow and tedious, and some little time after daylight 

 a few signs of insect life were seen in the shape of 'snow-fleas,' two or 

 three large winged grasshoppers and, occasionally at first, a butterfly. 

 The last two were stiffened by the cold as if they were there 

 from the day previous. The butterfly increased greatly in 

 numbers as we ascended, and were, many of them, found among and 

 under the loose stones as well as a few upon them. At perhaps half- 

 past nine, we came to a point on which the sun had long been shining, 

 and here the butterflies were flying in the air, the flight being in a 

 south-easterly direction. From here, they seemed to increase very 

 rapidly in numbers up the remainder of the ascent to well towards the 

 summit. The latter was reached at 12.20 a.m., and the temperature 

 was noted as 42'T. in the open air. We remained here about half an 

 hour, then passed down by way of the Hot Sulphur Springs and thence 

 out on the southerly face of the mountains. We again encountered 

 our beautiful friends, at not further than six or eight hundred feet 

 below the extreme peak, and they were now in countless numbers, 

 filling the air with their flashing wings, and all passing in the same 

 direction as observed during the ascent, i.e., towards the south-east. 

 This strange sight continued until we seemed to pass below them at 

 an altitude of between 11,000ft. and 12,000ft. The fact of its being 

 a continuous flight of these insects across the mountain in one direc- 

 tion during the warm part of the day — a period of nearly five hours — 

 is beyond question. That it was in progress one or more days previous 

 to that upon which I observed it, is an easy deduction from the fact 



