The Nuptial Flight 99 
end. To my astonishment, the greatest number that ever flew to 
the roof were captured; four large cagefuls, or 119 moths, and 
about 20 evaded capture in the rush, making a total of 189! 
Of these, 93 were new native males, and 26 wore color markings 
which showed that this was their second or third flight to the 
roof. (The returns of these are recorded under their respective 
experiments.) This gives us the surprising evidence that a few 
females exert as potent a power of attraction as many. 
As I stood on the roof peering into the darkness to see whence 
they came, I soon found that they were not coming from the 
north or west, where the vista was open, but the majority of 
them bobbed up over the mansard of my house and the house 
on the south, but they did not come in through my east window; 
this indicated that they were coming from the southeast. In my 
restricted position I could not determine with certainty the 
direction of the wind, until I noticed that the light smoke from 
a tall chimney a block distant floated away toward the south- 
east in an unbroken ribbon. Here at last was convincing evi- 
dence to justify my long surmise that they are guided to their 
goal by the wind, and hence follow back against the current of 
air which brings them the message. 
Exp. 21. May 22. Wind, northeast; station, 2 miles south- 
west. Fifty males were taken out on this test flight; 44 were 
Wild ones which had come in that morning, and 6 inexperienced 
bred moths (3 were 1 day old, 1 was 2 days and 2 were 3 days). 
I tried to place them, as nearly as I could estimate, in the path 
of the wind, at the distance of two miles. None returned the 
next dawn, but on the following mornings one each came in. 
Two miles was a long distance to exact of them, but since others 
in later tests accomplished more than that, I cannot explain 
this almost total failure, unless it be that the chances were 
thereby greater for them to miss the direct current in the wind, 
°r, More probably, for them to meet native females en route. 
Exp. 22. May 23. Twenty-seven native males which had 
come in the day before were marked and liberated at 2 :30 a. m. 
im the darkened room, to see if at close range they would settle 
on the cages of the females. The only females in my possession 
at that time were the aged and worn ones mentioned above, but 
later tests proved that they were still capable of exerting their 
