145 
A MIGRATING BUTTERFLY 
This is the season to watch for the migration of the 
orange and black Butterfly, familiarly known as the 
Monarch — to his intimate friends, the Anosia 
plexippvs * In the insect world, the world of myriad 
wonders, this familiar dweller among the nectar- 
laden flowers is the only migrant ♦ And why should 
insects come or depart with the changing seasons s' 
Ephemeral atoms in the great sea of life, at one time 
crawling on the earth like reptiles, at another flying 
in the air like birds or swimming in the water like 
fish, again burrowing in the ground like moles, and 
relapsing into inert forms that sustain, like seeds, the 
mystery of life through the fiercest northern frosts, 
sometimes eating voraciously and again sustaining 
a life of activity without food, they change with the 
passing seasons, dancing in the summer sun or 
congealing in the frozen earth in winter* But the 
Monarch Butterfly, familiar in his dizzy, undulating 
flight among the chimney tops or feasting daintily 
on the nectar of the Clover, is impelled to go from 
zone to zone in the fulfilment of his life mission* In 
the middle of the big lake his indolent, irregular flight 
seems purposeless and indifferent* He seems to heed 
K 
