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A MIGRATING BUTTERFLY 



Tms is the season to watch for the migration of the 

 orange and black Butterfly, familiarly known as the 

 Monarch — to his intimate friends, the Anosia 

 plexippus. In the insect world, the world of myriad 

 wonders, this familiar dweller among the nectar- 

 laden flowers is the only migrant. And why should 

 insects come or depart with the changing seasons^ 

 Ephemeral atoms in the great sea of life, at one time 

 crawling on the earth like reptiles, at another flying 

 in the air like birds or swimming in the water like 

 fish, again burrowing in the ground Hke moles, and 

 relapsing into inert forms that sustain, like seeds, the 

 mystery of life through the fiercest northern frosts, 

 sometimes eating voraciously and again sustaining 

 a life of activity without food, they change with the 

 passing seasons, dancing in the summer sun or 

 congealing in the frozen earth in winter. But the 

 Monarch Butterfly, familiar in his dizzy, undulating 

 flight among the chimney tops or feasting daintily 

 on the nectar of the Clover, is impelled to go from 

 zone to zone in the fulfilment of his life mission. In 

 the middle of the big lake his indolent, irregular flight 

 seems purposeless and indifferent. He seems to heed 



K 



