In June of 1911, close six o'clock in the evening, I sat on the
front veranda of the Cabin, in company with my family, and
watched three moths sail past us and around the corner, before
I remembered that on the screen of the music-room window to the
east there was a solitary female Promethea moth, that day emerged
from a cocoon sent me by Professor Rowley. I hurried to the room
and found five male moths fluttering before the screen or clinging
to the wild grape and sweet brier vines covering it. I opened the
adjoining window and picked up three of the handsomest with my
fingers, placing them inside the screen. Then I returned to
the veranda.
Moths kept coming. We began studying the conditions. The
female had emerged in the diningroom on the west side of the
cabin. On account of the intense heat of the afternoon sun, that
side of the building had been tightly closed all day. At four
o'clock the moth was placed on the east window, because it was
sheltered with vines. How soon the first male found her, I do not
know.
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