704 Major Neville Manders on 
country immediately in front of them is clear of them 
for the time being ; whereas in the former, the butterflies 
in whatever part of the island they happen to be hatched 
immediately begin to migrate, so that on the same day 
the migration is as vigorous in one part of the island as 
in another. As the butterflies hatch in Colombo they 
immediately fly north, and their places are promptly filled 
by the insects coming up from Galle, the Galle ones by 
those from Hambantotte and so on round to Trincomalee, 
beyond which in the uninhabited country to the north I 
have been unable to trace them. The proof that the 
insects on the Trincomalee side really do follow the coast- 
line and come to Colombo is shown by the fact that it is 
only during the flights that certain butterflies otherwise 
confined to that portion of the island, Papilio Jason for 
instance, occur at Colombo, and are there seen migrating 
in the same frantic haste as their companions. 
On one occasion, on December 2, 7. e. in the wet season, 
I was observing the flight from Fort Frederick, Trincomalee. 
The butterflies came from the northern shore straight 
across the sea to the end of the peninsula on which Fort 
Frederick is built; several bushes of the food-plant of 
C’. pyranthe were growing there, and these were literally 
covered with eggs, as many as half-a-dozen on a single leaf ; 
the bushes were so speckled with the multitude of eggs 
that they looked as if handfuls of sago had been scattered 
over them. The flights in November and December on 
both sides of the island undoubtedly comprise a majority 
of females, but scarcely a single larva out of this multi- 
tude of eggs could possibly have come to maturity; there 
was not enough food for half of them, and on a previous 
migration the bushes not far off were completely stripped 
by the larve. 
The insects composing the coast flight are almost entirely 
Catopsilias, two species of Appias, Euplea asela, and 
E. montana,in the hill districts, and Danais septentrionis 
irregularly. I should have mentioned that the process of 
laying eggs was totally contrary to what one usually 
observes—there was no attempt to choose a suitable leaf, 
no deliberation displayed about the operation at all, but 
every female seemed possessed with the one insane idea 
of getting rid of her eggs with the utmost expedition, 
utterly regardless of the fate of the future larve, and 
then madly continuing her flight. When in full migration 
a 
