176 THE MEMOEABLE. 



in the manner of gnats, or as the ghost-moth in England 

 plays at the side of a wood. After watching them awhile, 

 I noticed that some of them were resting with closed 

 wings at the extremities of one or two depending vines. 

 One after another fluttered from the group of dancers to 

 the reposing squadron, and alighted close to the others, so 

 that, at length, when only about two or three of the fliers 

 were left, the rest were collected in groups of half a dozen 

 each, so close together that each group might have been 

 grasped by the hand. When once one had alighted it 

 did not in general fly again, but a new-comer, fluttering 

 at the group, seeking to find a place, sometimes disturbed 

 one recently settled, when the wings were thrown open, 

 and one or two flew up again. As there were no leaves 

 on the hanging stalks, the appearance presented by these 

 butterflies, so crowded together, their long erect wings 

 pointing in different directions, was not a little curious. 

 I was told by persons residing near, that every evening 

 they thus assembled, and that I had not seen a third part 

 of the numbers often collected in that spot. 



Another sight which I can never forget is the swarming 

 of Urania Sloanus around a blossoming tree at sunrise. 

 This is one of the most gorgeously beautiful of butterflies, 

 its broad wings and body being arrayed in a dress of 

 rich velvet black and emerald green, arranged in transverse 

 bands, with a broad disk of ruddy gold, the whole spark- 

 ling with a peculiar radiance, like powdered gems. It is, 

 besides, an insect of unusual interest to the philosophic 

 entomologist, because it is one of those transitional forms 



