Florida trails as seen from Jacksonville to Key West and from November to April inclusivePackard, Winthrop
History
Florida trails as seen from Jacksonville to Key West and from November to April inclusive
Packard, Winthrop
Florida -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Florida
Of the other varieties of demure, delightful, sedate, serene,
fascinating or frivolous butterflies that passed within reach of my net
as I simply stood and watched them that most wonderful day I might name
a dozen. The numbers, of all varieties, were countless, and all were
moving south. I do not think it a conscious migration. Yet it has all
the effect of that. A butterfly, like a migrating bird, flies best
against a gentle wind. It is time now for the first of the wild geese to
be on their way down from the Arctic, flying and feeding across the
Northern States. You will find them feeding or resting when the wind is
out of the north. When it blows in the higher atmosphere from the south
the long harrows breast it with ease, high up, and seem to make their
way as rapidly and as far as possible while it lasts.
On days when the wind blows from the north down here there is a bit of
the northern chill in the air. No more than enough to give a needed
stimulus to a Northern man, to make him wish to tramp far and see all
things, but to the Southern sun-born butterfly this chill spells no
thoroughfare. All traffic is suspended on such days, and though in sunny
sheltered corners you may find many or all varieties, only such vigorous
fellows as the monarchs fly high or far. In other words, on sunny days
with a southern wind there is a steady southward migration of all
strong-winged butterflies, a movement that sends literally thousands
upon thousands in the course of a day across miles of country. This is
not conscious or purposeful migration as is the movement of the birds at
this time of year, but the aggregate result is much the same. Nor is the
rate of passage of individuals at all slow. I find when I sweep at one
of these southbound fellows with the net and then, missing him, attempt
to follow his flight, I migrate southward at a jog trot that would mean
five or six miles an hour. The butterflies that started out earliest on
that sunny November morning were a dozen miles nearer the head-waters of
the St. Johns when the chill of late afternoon overtook them.
I have named the, to me, loveliest and most fascinating of these
November migrants. So far I have found two others most interesting. One
of these is _Anosia berenice_, which, according to my reading of
butterfly authorities, has no business here at all. Berenice, surnamed
the queen, is of the same genus as the monarch, the only other species
of the genus found in the United States. The color is a livid brown, not
differing much from that of the monarch to the casual glance. The white
spots on the wings are similarly placed but the black veining is absent
on the upper sides.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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