XIV THE EMIGRANTS 203 



assembled there. Certainly it was not food which 

 had attracted these eaters of Aphidae to the top of 

 Mont Ventoux, some 6000 feet high. Vegetation 

 is too scanty — never Aphis ventured up there. 



Another time, in June, on the tableland of St. 

 Amand, at a height of 734 metres, I saw a similar 

 gathering, only less numerous. At the most pro- 

 jecting part of the tableland, on the edge of an 

 escarpment of perpendicular rocks, rises a cross 

 with a pedestal of hewn stone. On every side of 

 this pedestal, and on the rocks serving as its base, 

 the very same beetle, the seven - spotted ladybird 

 of Mont Ventoux, was gathered in legions. They 

 were mostly quite still, but wherever the sunbeams 

 struck there was a continuous exchange of place 

 between the newcomers, who wanted to find room, 

 and those resting, who took wing only to return 

 after a short flight. Neither here any more than 

 on the top of Mont Ventoux was there anything 

 to explain the cause of these strange assemblages 

 on arid spots without Aphidae and noways attractive 

 to Coccinellidae,- — nothing which could suggest the 

 secret of these populous gatherings upon masonry 

 standing at so great an elevation. 



Have we here two examples of insect migration ? 

 Can there be a general meeting such as swallows 

 hold before the day of their common departure ? 

 Were these rendezvous whence the cloud of lady- 

 birds were to seek some district richer in food ? 

 It may be so, but it is very extraordinary. The 

 ladybird has never been talked of for her love 

 of travel. She seems a home-loving creature enough 

 when we see her slaying the green-fly on rose trees, 



