EUPLOEINAE: ANOSIA PLEXIPPUS. 735 



leaving the groves in vast flocks, and scattering through the air almost beyond reach 

 of the eye. 



This was, I believe, the first published account of the immense abund- 

 ance and congregating propensities of this butterfly ; but numerous addi- 

 tions to this part of our literature were speedily made. Thus Mr. Saunders 

 described (Can. ent., iii : 156-157) a somewhat similar flock in 1871, 

 much nearer New England, and the same year it was observed in New 

 England itself by Mr. P. S. Sprague. Mr. Saunders writes : — 



It was about nine o'clock in the morning when, passing a group of trees forming a 

 rude semicircle on the edge of a wood facing the lake, the leaves attracted attention : 

 they seeming possessed of unusual motion, and displayed fitful patches of brilliant 

 red. On alighting, a nearer approach revealed the presence of vast numbers — I might 

 safely say millions — of these butterflies clustering everyAvhere. I counted a small 

 space, about the size of my two hands, on one of the trees, and there were thirty-two 

 butterflies suspended on it, and the whole group of trees was hung in a similar man- 

 ner. When disturbed, they flew up in immense numbers, filling the air, and after float- 

 ing about a short time, gradually settled again. There appeared to be nothing on the 

 trees to attract them, yet when undisturbed they appeared at this time to prefer rest- 

 ing in quiet, as if enjoying the presence of congenial society. 



Mr. Lintner, in writing of this butterfly, from Albany, N. Y., the same 

 year, says : — 



I have heard of its abundance in every direction about us, both in this and the 

 neighboring states. At Scoharie I was able to count twenty on the wing at once, 

 driven up by passing wagons from the damp ground on which they were resting. 

 About the 25th of August they were most numerous ; in one field of buckwheat which 

 I passed, in returning to Albany, I presume there were a thousand feeding from the 

 blossoms or flying over them. They seem to be of a social disposition, for a friend 

 told me that he had seen large numbers congregated on a small branch of a pine in a 

 grove at Scoharie, the outer ones crowding those adjoining, as if to get as near as 

 possible. 



Mr. Riley (3d Report. Ins. Mo., 151) mentions a swarm seen in April 

 by Mr. Thomas Wells at Manhattan, Kansas, which came rapidly with a 

 strong wind from the northwest, and filled the atmosphere for more than 

 an hour, sometimes so as to eclipse the light ; other similar statements 

 will be found in Mr. Riley's Third Report. 



Mr. Roland Thaxter tells how, while spending the winter of 1875-76 in 

 Apalachicola, Fla., he 



found one of these archippus swarms in a pine grove not far from the town. The 

 trees were literally festooned with butterflies within an area of about an acre, and 

 they were clustered so thickly that the trees seemed to be covered with dead leaves. 

 . . . Upon shaking some of the trees a cloud of butterflies flew off, and the flapping 

 of their wings was distinctly audible. They hung in rows (often double) on the 

 lower dead branches, and in bunches on the needles. (Can. ent., xii : 38.) 



" On a little fork about a foot long," he writes me, he counted thirty- 

 seven. Dr. John Hamilton gives a startling account of their numbers in 

 September, 1885, at Brigantine Beach, New Jersey : — 

 The multitude of this butterfly that assembled here the first week in September is 



