i8o TRUE TALES OF THE INSECTS. 



gregarious, and the hordes seem always to travel in 

 one direction, to south-south-east, a fact throwing no 

 light, rather the reverse, on these very unintelligible 

 circumstances. 



Twilight Fliers. 



While some butterflies, usually of a dark colour, avoid 

 the sun, by haunting the gloomiest recesses of the forest, 

 others are crepuscular, issuing forth just after sunset, and 

 flitting about in the dusk. Found both in the East 

 India Isles and in America, these are true twilight 

 fliers, appearing never to wander at night in the moon- 

 light, or to enter lighted rooms as the Night- Moths, 

 although, like the latter, they repose all day. So much 

 for the universal influence of the warmth of the sun on 

 the flight of butterflies ! 



'v 

 A Quarrelsome Disposition. 



Perhaps, also, we take too much for granted the mild, 

 peaceable disposition, the defencelessness, the irrational 

 character of the butterfly. A company will drive away 

 and pursue for a short distance a large member of their 

 kind which comes nigh their favourite resting- or feed- 

 ing-places, assuring themselves that the intruder has 



