. The Canadian field-naturalist. Natural history. 212 The Ottawa Naturalist, (February gathered on the sunny side of the trees and basked in the warmth of the sun till between eight and nine o'clock, when they suddenly determined to set about their day's work, or whatever they were in quest of, for they began to flit about in all directions and in such numbers that the air seemed full of them. During the after- noon they did not appear so plentiful. I cannot recall the exact date when they first made their appearance in such large numbers, but it must have been about August 20th, and they rema
. The Canadian field-naturalist. Natural history. 212 The Ottawa Naturalist, (February gathered on the sunny side of the trees and basked in the warmth of the sun till between eight and nine o'clock, when they suddenly determined to set about their day's work, or whatever they were in quest of, for they began to flit about in all directions and in such numbers that the air seemed full of them. During the after- noon they did not appear so plentiful. I cannot recall the exact date when they first made their appearance in such large numbers, but it must have been about August 20th, and they remained for probably ten days. To give a better idea of the great number in this swarm, I may say that they appeared in equally large numbers over a distance of twelve miles, to my knowledge, and how much more I cannot say. They seemed to settle down whenever night overtook them, if in an open field among the grass or grain, and if in a bush they gathered as close together as they could get on tree or shrub. They seemed, I think, to prefer the elm trees to any others, for there appeared to to be far more on them than on any other kinds. There had been odd indi- viduals of these butterflies flying about as early as a month before the coming of the main body and odd ones remained behind for pro- bably a month longer; but the great swarm came sud- denly one day and disappeared with equal suddenness. They seemed a sleek and well conditioned host and looked as though they fared well, but what they lived on I cannot say. During the early morning one could go out and gather them in any quantity, but as soon as they were on the wing they would ead one a merry chase. The weather during the time of the swarm was fine, bright and warm, with southerly and westerly winds prevailing. The district they visited was along the base of the Pembina range of Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration a
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