122 
LJEPID OPT ERA INDICA. 
white, may be observed during the hottest part of the day rushing in an impetuous 
flight across the country, drawn by some irresistible instinctive impulse, and im¬ 
patient of any obstruction m their headlong course; even ascending hills of 
6,000 feet elevation, and descending again; striking like animated snow-flakes 
against any one meeting them in their course; and then, after passing the 
obstruction, making on with the same pertinacity as before towards where they are 
hurrying to, until the failure of sunshine arrests their progress for the day, to be 
continued probably on succeeding days until the wondrous furor has exhausted 
itself. By the superstitious natives these marvellous movements of white butterflies 
are attributed to a desire on the part of the insects to do homage to the footstep of 
Buddha on Adams Peak, moved, as the native himself is, to do so at certain times 
of the year. But the phenomenon itself, apart from the native idea, is well worthy 
of study by any one who has time and opportunities to devote to it. It would be 
interesting to ascertain, firstly, whence these butterfly hosts come and where their 
feeding grounds when in the larval state; secondly, to determine if the immense 
numbers of these butterflies, which have halted for the night, wake up in the early 
morning to continue their course in exactly the same direction as on the previous 
day, and at what hour the resumed movement commences ; and thirdly, to ascertain 
if, during the time their progress is arrested by night, many fall a prey to the attacks 
of birds, bats, lizards, etc., to an extent to reduce their numbers very considerably, 
and how their eventual disappearance is to be accounted for. I should remark that 
amongst the main body of these travelling white butterflies, small groups of half a 
dozen individuals or more may be observed, which in strings of sequence, looking as 
if playing ‘follow my leader,’ have a very pretty appearance. In some portions of 
the country in their line of flight, where shallow water may be lying, large numbers 
of these white butterflies may be seen quenching their thirst on the damp ground, 
and flying up when disturbed in quite a startling cloud.” Mr. T. J. Mann writes 
(Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. June, 1895), “I observed Catophaga G-alene, in Ceylon, 
migrating in thousands across the northern part of the Island during March and 
April, 1859, in a direction from N.E. to S.W. The movement commenced about 
7 a.m., and lasted until noon, when it decreased, and was renewed in the afternoon 
for another two hours.” Dr. N. Manders, in Mr. de Niceville’s List of Ceylon 
butterflies (Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, 1899, 172), remarks, “After the initial heavy 
rains, butterflies start afresh in November, December, and January, and it is in 
these months more especially, though to a slighter extent at the beginning of the 
S.W. Monsoon in June, that the extraordinary migratory flights of butterflies take 
place. These flights are perfectly amazing and scarcely credible. At Colombo, 
where Dr. Manders has more particularly noticed them, the direction of the flight is 
always northerly and principally along the sea shore, possibly the more readily to 
