322 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 



their boats, literally covering them. They did not stay 

 long upon the islands, however, only a few days ; but during 

 that time thousands must have fallen victims to the vigor- 

 ous appetites of the Blue Bird (Slala stalls of Baird) and 

 Blackbird {Orpheus carollnensls), which were continually 

 preying upon them." 



The Editor of the " Bermuda Royal Gazette," of Feb- 

 ruary the ist, 1876, corroborates Mr. Jones's statement in 

 the manner following : — 



" In our supplementary to-day, will be found a highly 

 interesting account by J. Mathew Jones, Esq., Entomo- 

 logist, of a visit to these islands on the ist of October, 

 1874, of clouds of numerous small Butterflies. About 

 eleven o'clock on that morning, a gentleman, who had 

 occasion to take a drive towards the Crawl from Devon- 

 shire, called at our office, and brought with him one or 

 two of these insects, and which, he said, covered his 

 carriage and his horse both on his way to and from the 

 Crawl, more particularly on his downward journey. Whilst 

 he was yet talking to us, numbers of the Butterflies made 

 their appearance in the air, coming, as it were, to confirm 

 the gentleman's report." 



As the authority quoted by Mr. Jones, with reference to 

 the first visitation of Terlas llsa to those islands, I may be 

 permitted to state that, at the date mentioned, I had been 

 resident in the Bermudas for seven years, and had devoted 

 considerable attention to the natural history of that distant 

 group without once meeting with a specimen of this 

 Butterfly. On the 10th of October in that year — 1847 — 

 thousands and thousands of Terlas llsa suddenly appeared, 

 flitting about in every direction. I captured a few speci- 

 mens, as already stated, in perfect ignorance of what they 

 were, or whence they came, and these I carried with me to 

 England in 1855. Here my friend Jones, on looking over 



