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others? Or are these insects simply attracted by the sparkling 
water as others are by light,-and that destruction thus frequently 
ensues to the individuals so attracted ? 
The drinking habit is as common among the Lepidoptera of 
America as among those of Europe. Bethune writes from Port 
Hope, Ontario: ‘On the 3rd of August, 1869, a lovely bright 
warm morning after an excessively wet night, I drove about ten 
miles along country roads. Every few yards there was a patch of 
mud, the effects of the heavy rain, and at every patch of mud there 
were from half a dozen to twenty specimens of Colzas philodice—at 
least one, I should think, for every yard of distance that I travelled.” 
Bates writes that when at Obydos, on the north side of the Lower | 
Amazons, he observed, as the waters retreated from the beach, vast 
numbers of sulphur-yellow and orange-coloured butterflies congregated 
on the moist sand. ‘The greater part of these belonged to the genus 
Callidryas. They assembled in densely packed masses, sometimes 
two or three yards in circumference, their wings all held in an 
upright position, so that the beach looked as though variegated with 
beds of crocuses. He further observed that all the individuals which 
resorted to the margins of the sandy beaches were of the male sex. 
The females, he says, are much more rare, and are seen only on the 
borders of the forest, wandering from time to time and depositing 
their eggs on low mimosas which grow in the shade. Wallace says 
that at Patos, on the Tocantins, the most abundant insects were the 
yellow butterflies, which often settled in great numbers on the beach, 
and when disturbed rose in a body, forming a complete yellow and 
orange fluttering cloud. Afterwards, when he was at Manaquery, he 
says that several rare butterflies were found sitting on the river-side, 
in the morning, on the margin of mud left by the retiring waters. 
At Guia, again, he found the rarest butterflies on the river-side. 
Scudder writes, “‘ Every one must have noticed, at the brink of road- 
side pools left by a recent rain, how the yellow butterflies will start 
up at one’s approach, flutter about for a few moments, and then 
settle down again to their repast. On favourable occasions you may 
find them ranged by hundreds along the edge of a puddle, with 
wings erect, crowded as closely as they can be packed. ‘The little 
azure butterflies congregate in the same way about moist spots in the 
roads through woods ; but as they choose less frequented places this 
is not so common a sight. Our Tiger Swallow-tails throng about 
lilac blossoms, and become so intoxicated that on one occasion a 
friend of mine caught sixty of them at once between his two hands.” 
It would appear that this habit is general in hot countries, and 
hence we find the records of this drinking habit frequently noticed 
by those who have collected in such districts. In Piepers’ paper, 
already referred to, we read that ‘‘1n the East India islands, where the 
clear mountain streams rush foaming over masses of rock, especially 
where the rivers flow swiftest and purest, down waterfalls, or near 
water broken by the irregularities of the bed, the haunts of the great 
