PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. xcvii. 



butterflies were in such numbers that they completely covered 

 their boats. It is recorded by Webster that on May i4th and 

 1 5th, 1888, the shores of the St. Francis River in Arkansas 

 were literally lined with butterflies of the species Apatura Ctltis, 

 and that, on landing, one was surrounded immediately by a 

 cloud of them. There is apparently nothing to show that these 

 had not been bred upon the spot ; but this species is known as a 

 migrant from other records in the Mississippi and elsewhere. 

 Another great North American migrant is Eugonia Californica 

 a species somewhat allied to our Painted Lady, of which there 

 are records from San Francisco, from Mt. Shasta, in California, 

 a mountain 14,440 feet in height, where it was met with within a 

 few hundred feet of the summit, far above the snow line, flying 

 in countless numbers in a south-easterly direction. From east 

 to south-east seems indeed to be the most usually observed 

 direction of flight of these North American migrations of 

 butterflies. 



A fine species of butterfly, Danais Archippus, which has 

 occasionally been taken in England and is of world-wide 

 distribution, probably through its migratory habits, is one of 

 the most noted North American migrants. There are many 

 recorded instances to show that it has a habit of collecting 

 together in enormous numbers into a small area in the autumn, 

 and then migrating in a southerly or south-westerly direction. 

 One account on September 23rd, 1886, from West River, Mary- 

 land, states that about 7 a.m. there were an innumerable number 

 of these butterflies at all heights from 100 feet upwards to 

 beyond the range of vision, flying south-west in the face of a 

 stiff breeze. 



There is said also to be a migration northwards in the spring 

 of those that went south in the autumn after their hibernation ; 

 but this would seem doubtful and improbable, and the facts in 

 support of it are not nearly so numerous or weighty as those 

 which prove the autumn movement. In South America it would 



