THE ROMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



ing at the group, seeking to find a place, some- 

 times 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 butter- 

 flies, 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 by which great groups 

 are linked together. Every one would say, on 

 looking at it, that it is a butterfly, and yet it 

 possesses the technical characters of a moth. 



At a certain season, in Jamaica, viz., in the first 

 week of April, with very accurate regularity, this 

 magnificent insect suddenly appears in great num- 

 bers. The avo^ada pear, a kind of Laurus, whose 

 fruit is much esteemed, is then in blossom, and is 

 the centre of attraction to these butterflies. As 

 the approaching sun is casting a glow of gold 

 over the eastern sky, one after another begins to 

 come, and by the time the glorious orb emerges 

 from the horizon, the lovely living gems are flut- 

 tering by scores, or even by hundreds, around 

 some selected tree. The level sunbeams, glancing 

 170 



