47 



is said to have positively mentioned that such influences act a principal part 

 in it. This I only got to know from Turr's book, who takes it from Etit. 

 Mo. Mag. XIX p. 169, and who evidently also only mentions it in compilation, 

 as, for the rest, he is silent about it, obviously under the influence of his 

 "preconceived notions", and not seeing the value of it. The intensity of this 

 influence varies greatly at different times. Sometimes I observed the swarming 

 for months together on every sunny day on which the wind was not very 

 strong, however, from 8 o'clock in the morning till 4 o'clock in the afternoon — 

 the ordinary time for them to fly. The butterflies, without pausing, flew 

 straight on, over all the obstacles which were not too high, for instance over 

 bungalows, and only avoiding dense places, as woods without open paths; bred 

 butterflies which had just emerged from the chrysalides, flew, as soon as their 

 wings permitted them to do so, also at once in the same direction as the 

 swarm. But at other times the phenomenon only took place during some hours 

 of the day, and then it was in no way so intense, so that many butterflies 

 were seen moving away for sexual reasons or sitting down for some time on 

 flowers and after this flying on again in the general direction. Some species 

 of butterflies are also much more sensible to that influence than others; in this 

 respect C. Pomona F. beats the record in the Indian archipelago, just as 

 Pyrameis Cardui L. in Europe; the bright, striking colour of the former, 

 connected with the large number in which it often occurs during the rainy 

 season, make the phenomenon very conspicuous. 



Tutt's work on this subject is of little value and the same is the case with 

 what Prof P. Bachmetjew has since stated in his compilation, Experimentelle 

 Studien von physika/isch-ckemiscke?i Standpuiit aus, //1907, very curiously showing 

 that this savant is also acquainted only with the former of my above-mentioned 

 essays. But on the contrary very recently, when this work was already in print, 

 there appeared on this subject a highly important essay by Dr. Harry Federley, 

 entitled : Einiore Libelhilidenivanderiinzen iiber die Zoolopische Siatiofi bei Tvar- 

 mitme, which was published at Helsingfors in 1908 in the Acta societatis pro 

 Fauna et Flora Fennica, 3 1 no. 7, and in which the author agrees in many 

 respects with my views about this matter. 



Many kinds of superstition are connected with this phenomenon everywhere. 

 Generally the appearance of such a large number of butterflies is considered 

 to be the precursor of an epidemy. In Europe also there exists much super- 

 stition about all kinds of uncommon phenomena. 



In Sumatra some one heard people call these butterflies hadjis, viz. 

 Mohammedan pilgrims, and indeed these also travel, enveloped in white clothes, 



