VARIETIES. 319 



stand quietly and allow them to come to me ; they are slow 

 and very easily captured ; and after having observed the direc- 

 tion in which one is proceeding, I could always make sure of 

 many more following in the same track : when I have attempted 

 to turn them back, it has been of no avail, they have passed 

 on one side, or over me, and quietly pursued their course : 

 these roads are cut through the woods in every direction of 

 the compass, and I found the way of the wind had little or 

 nothing to do with the matter, as in some instances their flight 

 was with the wind, and in others directly against it. SaUirnia 

 Carpim, the Emperor Moth, and Endromis versicolor, the 

 Kentish Glory, invariably fly against the wind. During the 

 past spring, I had an excellent opportunity of remarking 

 the habit of the latter beautiful and rare moth ; it was about 

 the middle of April, the weather cloudy, and the wind eastward. 

 Being on the heathy common, on the south side of Birch- 

 wood, at two o'clock P.M., I observed one of these moths 

 coming directly from the west, with a zig-zag flight, and at a 

 most amazingly rapid rate it passed over my head, and was 

 soon out of sight; for about an hour and a quarter others 

 continued to follow, one at a time, in nearly the same line, all 

 coming like the first, directly from the west, and flying towards 

 the east. I was not fortunate enough to secure a single one, 

 although I learned that several were captured on the same 

 day ; probably, one motive for these insects flying in this way, 

 is to detect the females, w^hich are generally dull sluggish 

 animals, and scarcely fly at all. In the autumn, when the ants 

 are assuming the winged state, I have seen myriads of both 

 sexes, crossing the River Thames in the direction of the wind, 

 and moving in a somewhat oblique manner, so as to cause 

 thousands of them to fall in the water, the surface of which 

 was completely sprinkled with their floating bodies : the swarm 

 continued to pass in nearly equal profusion, six hours after- 

 wards, when I repassed the spot, and had probably continued 

 to do so during the interval. In windy weather, Megachile 

 WillonghhieUa, the leaf-cutter bee, invariably goes to wind- 

 ward of its nest to procure leaves, and returns loaded, with the 

 wind, thus converting a high wind into an assistance, instead 

 of permitting it to be, as one would very reasonably have sup- 

 posed, a preventative to its proceedings. 



Your's, &c. Edward Newman. 



