VOCAL £ INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC OF INSECTS. 23 



on their tideless shore, like its namesake, the "rufus humming- 

 bird," that appears in Canada with the gush of the spring tide, 

 has been seen poising where the flowering creepers festoon the 

 porch. Deiopeia imlchella, distributed from India to the Cape, 

 has created surprise in the stubble-field, and Sterrha sacraria, 

 its compatriot, has been seen fluttering at the evening lamp. 

 Some little latitude must be here allowed, for the only example 

 I have of the latter moth I captured at Shanklin on Oct. 9th, 

 1869, and about the year 1898 I found a " convolvulus hawk " 

 floating in the water at the Needles ; indeed, there has always 

 been a presentiment that these stray butterflies and moths have 

 not really flown over the Channel, but have arrived as passengers 

 on board ship, while it cannot be overlooked that the " clouded 

 yellow butterfly " was found exhausted on the beach at Deal at 

 the commencement of August, 1908, when the south-west wind was 

 blowing. In or about 1100, 1502, 1741, 1798, 1803, 1818, 1828, 

 1836, 1842, 1851, 1860, and 1879 the "painted lady butterfly," 

 that must have been locally abundant, flew about in detach- 

 ments, or migrated northwards over Europe in flocks : naturally 

 the male and female would coquet in the air — there must have 

 been some contention — and then, as I believe there is evidence to 

 show, the whole assemblage wafted off like smoke on the sweep 

 of the sirocco. The " small tortoiseshell" {Vanessa urticce), as is 

 known, employs a red secretion to free itself from the chrysalis- 

 case, and this may prove an attraction. Our pious ancestors 

 were often startled by blood prodigies, owing to the fungus 

 stains that appear in paste, on bramble-leaves, and alpine snow ; 

 but in 1553, when a multitude of butterflies swarmed throughout 

 Germany, and sprinkled plants, leaves, buildings, clothes, and 

 men, there was little scope for credulity, and in 1608 a church 

 and wall in the warm suburbs of Aix, in Provence, it was very 

 evident, had been in like manner aspersed. The North American 

 Vanessa californica is known to migrate, for in August, 1889, 

 when ascending Mount Shasta, Mr. C. L. Hopkins, far above 

 snow-line, saw a large flock going south-west. This butterfly 

 has the appearance of being the ancestral form of our small and 

 large " tortoiseshell," which the Eev. G. H. Eayner had known 

 to pair. Mr. William White once found a web of caterpillars on 

 Highgate Hill, from which he reared an individual on nettle that 



