

THE MEMORABLE. 



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 Opuntin in full 

 flower, itself a memorable object to behold. The 

 beauty and singularity of the form, the very re- 

 markable shape of the wings, so long and so nar- 

 row, 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 at- 

 tracted, 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 

 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 ex- 

 tremities 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 col- 

 lected in groups of half a dozen each, so close to- 

 gether 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, flutter- 

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