HE LIC ON IA I. 
Muller, in a paper on Brazilian butterflies, to be characteristic of the genus Heli- 
conia. Several butterflies came forth in my room, and one of them was set free 
in the garden, placed gently on a flower of passion-vine. It rested some moments 
with wings fully opened and depressed a little below the horizontal, and then rose 
vertically some ten feet, circled two or three times, flew slowly towards the 
woods, and was seen no more. I had a similar experience in 1881 with two 
others, both rising; high and making for the nearest woods. 
Dr. Wittfeld reports that these butterflies frequent paths in the forest, or are 
found feeding at a little distance from the forest, to which they at once betake 
themselves if alarmed, and then fly rapidly, though usually their flight is heavy. 
Also, that they have the habit of gathering in flocks toward night, and roost, 
always with heads up, to the number of perhaps fifty or more, on Spanish moss, 
or on dry twigs of trees, especially such as have dead leaves still hanging to 
them. In the morning, after the sun is well up, they come trooping forth in 
search of flowers. 
This habit was observed by Philip Henry Gosse, Esq., as is stated in a note in 
Doubleday’s Genera, I., p. 97, and as this work is nearly inaccessible in this coun¬ 
try, I repeat Mr. Gosse’s remarks : “ Passing along a rocky foot-path on a steep 
wooded mountain side, in the Parish of St. Elizabeth (Jamaica), about the end of 
August, 1845, my attention was attracted, just before sunset, by a swarm of these 
butterflies in a sort of rocky recess, overhung by trees and creepers. They were 
about twenty in number, and were dancing to and fro, exactly in the manner of 
gnats, or as Hepioli play at the side of a wood. After watching them awhile, I 
noticed that some of them were resting with closed wings at the extremities of 
one or two depending vines. One after another fluttered from the group of 
dancers to the reposing squadron, and alighted close to the others, so that at 
length, when only about two or three of the fliers were left, the rest were col¬ 
lected in groups of half a dozen each, so close together that each group might 
have been grasped in the hand. When once one had alighted, it did not in gen¬ 
eral fly again, but a new-comer, fluttering at the group, seeking to find a place, 
sometimes disturbed one recently settled, when the wings were thrown open, and 
one or two flew up again. As there were no leaves on the hanging stalks, the 
appearance presented by these beautiful butterflies, so crowded together, their 
long, erect wings pointing in different directions, was not a little curious. I was 
told by persons residing near, that every evening they thus assembled, and that 
I had not seen a third part of the numbers often collected in that spot.” 
Mr. Wallace says of the Heliconidae in general: “ They all rest with their 
wings erect upon leaves and flowers, and at night I have observed them asleep, 
hanging at the extreme end of a slender twig, which bends beneath their weight 
and swings gentlv with the evening breeze.” 
O O •/ O . 
