62 WAYS OF THE SIX-FOOTED 



could not endure the northern winter they simply 

 came north for the summer and went back for the 

 winter. At least this is what the wise men tell us. 

 But this northern migration is carried on in a most 

 peculiar manner. Each mother butterfly follows the 

 spring northward as it advances as far as she finds the 

 milkweed sprouted. There she deposits her eggs, from 

 which hatch individiials that carry on the journey and 

 lay their eggs as far to the north as possible ; per- 

 chance it is their children that we hear of in late sum- 

 mer on the shores of Hudson Bay. As cool weather 

 approaches the Monarchs gather in vast flocks for the 

 southward migration. These flocks are not made up of 

 the individuals that migrated north but of their chil- 

 dren and grandchildren. There are no old ones among 

 them travel-wise to guide them back to Florida and 

 the West Indies. How they know the way is beyond 

 our imagination, unless, perhaps, there flows in their 

 bodies tropical blood that impels them to go back 

 where the bamboo shades the stream, and the torn ban- 

 ners of the banana wave on sluggish breeze. All we 

 know is this : the Monarchs migrate northward by 

 generations and southward by individuals ; and from 

 Patagonia to Athabasca swings the migratory pendulum. 

 Nor is it content with this range ; the strongest flier 

 of all the butterflies it hesitates not to try its for- 



