Couriers of the Air. 81 



five to ten miles they dropped behind, when 

 others took their places. All of us have seen 

 the flagging, lazy butterfly, flitting from flower to 

 flower in our gardens not quite so lazy, however, 

 if goaded on by some urgent motive. For when 

 this little flutterer, touched by some strange and 

 mysterious feeling which we cannot read, mounts 

 on sportive w r ings, " through fields of air prepared 

 to sail," she hurries onwards and onwards to some 

 new haven of real or fancied delight and happi- 

 ness. Such were the thoughts which occurred 

 when one of these wanderers accompanied the 

 writer by the roadside for a couple of miles, 

 never flagging a yard behind, nay, sometimes 

 being before a horse that was travelling at the 

 rate of nine or ten miles an hour. What could 

 all this speed and earnestness of the little crea- 

 ture mean ? It is not easy to explain how the 

 butterfly, with its broad, soft, feathery wings, 

 should be able to accomplish the feat of speed 

 just recorded.* 



In the tropics countless swarms of locusts 

 sometimes suddenly make their appearance, and 

 as suddenly vanish. They cover every leaf- 

 bearing thing, and occasionally completely de- 

 nude whole districts of greenery. So great 

 are their powers of flight that they have been 

 seen at sea nearly four hundred miles from 



* For several interesting facts concerning the flight of 

 insects, especially the dragon-fly, I am indebted to the late Dr. 

 Goueh. 



