VOCAL d INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC OF INSECTS. 21 



day I landed at Colombo (October 25th, 1895), and I certainly 

 thought I had stepped into the land of butterflies." In March, 

 1803, Mr. Lindley saw a flight of white and yellow butterflies 

 passing south-west at Pernambuco, on the coast of Brazil, and 

 in September, 1890, a migration of the citron-yellow Callidryas 

 ehule passing south caused some excitement in Alabama. On 

 Sept. 4th, 1832, when the ' Beagle ' was off San Bias, myriads 

 of butterflies of one of the numerous local forms of the " clouded 

 yellow " surrounded the ship. Those flocks of white butterflies 

 seen from time to time on our own south-eastern coast must be 

 susceptible to the charm of colour. A troop of the moth- 

 butterflies, Urania lelius, was seen progressing from north to 

 south at Pernambuco at the commencement of June, 1817. 

 These butterfly migrations, like that of the Stork and Swallow, 

 are seasonal. At the leaf-fall, the " American milk-weed butter- 

 flies," known as Danais archippus or Anosia plexippus, are wont 

 to fly south in flocks, and on Sept. 23rd, 1886, they were seen in 

 Maryland, hastening in that direction in the face of a stiff breeze. 

 The male in this genus has what is supposed to be a scent-pouch 

 on the hind wings. 



Other insect migrations are periodical, like those of the 

 " Waxwings," and recur in certain years, which are proverbially 

 the weather ones. According to the 'Transactions' of the 

 British Association the climax of the rainfall in our islands that 

 are watered by the cyclones from the west came in 1726, 1728, 

 1734, 1737, 1744, 1747, 1751, 1756, 1763, 1768, 1770, 1774, 

 1778, 1782, 1789, 1792, 1794, 1797, 1799, 1804, 1810, 1816, 

 1821, 1823, 1828, 1830, 1833, 1836, 1841, 1843, 1848, 1852, 

 1860, 1866—1 think I may add 1871, 1879, 1883, 1888, and 

 1894 ; and this series of certainly wet years will be found to in- 

 dicate those which have been determined to be years of most 

 and fewest sun-spots. The inhabitants of Sierra Leone, where 

 an idea has long been prevalent that the locusts or strong-flying 

 grasshoppers can hear, have been wont to drive them away with 

 a clatter, so beyond a doubt it is the rush of their wings which 

 has been compared to the roar of a waterfall that incites them 

 to herd together. These Sierra Leone locusts are wonderful 

 wafters on the gale. When on a voyage to the Mauritius in 

 October, 1863, far out at sea, I picked up one on the deck of the 



