266 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



an occurrence so very unnatural ever happened, 

 unless the character of the witnesses thereof was so 

 high as to be beyond suspicion. Yet this very case 

 is so frequently paralleled among various species of 

 insects, that instead of an anomalous or miraculous 

 fact, it may be considered, under particular circum- 

 stances, as the usual order of things. We are told, 

 for example, by Mr. Lindley, that when he was in 

 Brazil, in March, 1803, an immense flight of butter- 

 flies of white and yellow colours continued for many 

 days successively. They were observed never to 

 settle, but proceeding in a direction from north-west 

 to south-east, no obstacle appeared to stop them in 

 their course, which lay toward the ocean, where they 

 must all inevitably perish *. 



A somewhat different migration of butterflies was 

 recently observed in Switzerland. In the beginning 

 of June, Madame de Meuran Wolff and her family, 

 established during the summer at Grandson, on 

 the lake of Neufchatel, observed with surprise an 

 immense flight of butterflies traversing the garden 

 with great rapidity. They were all of the species 

 called Belle Dame by the French, and by the Lon- 

 don collectors the Painted Lady (Cynthia cardni, 

 STEPHENS). They were all flying close together 

 in the same direction, from south to north, and were 

 so little afraid when any one approached, that they 

 turned not to the right or to the left. The flight 

 continued for two hours without interruption, and the 

 column was about ten or fifteen feet broad. They 

 did not stop to alight on flowers, but flew onwards, 

 low and equally. This fact is the more singular, 

 when it is considered that the caterpillars of this 

 species are solitary from the moment they are 

 hatched t> nor are the butterflies themselves usually 



* Voyage to Brazil. 

 f See Insect Transformations, pp, 6$- 71 < 



