The Nuptial Flight 93 
and joined in the impromptu ghost-dance in an effort to capture 
the many giant moths that were fluttering and darting like bats 
about the ceiling and walls of the rooms. When, at last, the 
moths had ceased to come in and had all been gathered into 
cages, it was found that 42 had come in during this brief period. 
Standing on my roof as daylight was breaking over smoky St. 
Louis, and viewing my trophies in the cages, I ean truly parody 
Emerson: 
A second crop thy roof-tops yield 
Which I garner in a yawn. 
With these made safe, I could then calmly make records of 
the many interesting details which had been crowded into that 
brief period. This great movement of the moths had occurred 
just as day was breaking, at a little before 4 a. m.; by 4:30, they 
had entirely ceased to come in, and more than that, the moths in 
the cages had all subsided to quiet, and rested motionless. This 
was my first intimation that their activity is probably strongly 
Periodical; henceforth I was always on guard to discover the 
factors controling this periodicity. 
It was unquestionably evident, as I watched them coming in, 
that all of these males came from the west, flying against the 
Wind. Not one of them flew to the east windows, where other 
females were in cages, neither did any of them fly over the 
housetop and retrace its flight. It seemed that the strong east 
Wind blowing through the house must have carried the odors out 
through the west windows, and the males, following it back, 
tame to the west windows instead of the east ones. Unless we 
consider this hypothesis, there is ample reason to expect more 
Moths to come from the east than from the west, because the 
area to the west was closely built up with dwellings and indus- 
tries, while to the east lay a large park. It seems to me that, 
even if no other tests were made, this one experiment would be 
Sufficient to demonstrate conclusively that wind is a factor pe 
bringing the males to the females. This is quite unlike Fabre’s 
observations of Attacus pavonia minor, which, he says, came 
With the wind. The seven females in the east windows attracted 
nO suitors from without, but the four (one of which was dead) 
in the west windows drew the mob. Surely, had factors other 
ee, 
*Social Life in the Insect World, p. 197. 1912. 
