A JAMAICA BUTTERFLY. 175 



occupation together, sometimes calling alternately, some- 

 times both at the same instant. By and by, a third further 

 off in the forest joined them, and the first flew away. The 

 spell was broken, and I went to bed ; but even in sleep 

 the magic sounds seemed to be ringing in my ears. 



A very vivid emotion of delight, was produced in my 

 mind on my visit to Jamaica, by the sight of Heliconia 

 Charitonia. The appearance of this fine butterfly is so 

 totally different from that of any of the species with which 

 I had been familiar, the form is so peculiarly intertropical, 

 so associated with the gorgeous glooms of South American 

 scenery, that nothing like it had occurred to me either in 

 Europe, or in any part of the northern continent. I first 

 saw it fluttering, slowly and fearlessly, over a great thicket 

 of Opuntia in full flower, itself a memorable object to be- 

 hold. The beauty and singularity of the form, the very 

 remarkable shape of the wings, so long and so narrow, 

 the brilliant contrasts of colour with which they are 

 adorned, lemon-yellow and velvety black in bands, and 

 the very peculiar flapping of these organs in flight, as if 

 their length rendered them somewhat unwieldy, altogether 

 took a strong hold on my imagination. I subsequently 

 saw it under circumstances which greatly heightened the 

 interest with which I had first beheld it. 



Passing along a rocky footpath on a steep, wooded 

 mountain-side, my attention was attracted, just before 

 sunset, by a swarm of these butterflies in a sort of rocky 

 recess, overhung by trees and creepers. They were about 

 twenty in number, and were dancing to and fro exactly 



