On Collecting and Preserving for the Cabinet. 



In des Papillon's Gestalt 

 Flattr' ich nach den letzten Ziigen. 



Goethe. 



INature, like Virgil's sorceress, incessantly repeats, 

 enchanting: Ducite, al> nrle (Ionium, men carmina, ducite 

 Daplmim! and brings us by many lures to her home in 

 wood and field. Under the spell exercised by the display 

 of Butterflies and Moths, we may behold the Entomologists, 

 chasing their treasures by day through the meadows, in the 

 evening waiting for them by beds of scented flowers, at 

 night watching by bait and light the coming of their tiny 

 prey. The study combines Art and Science in a peculiarly 

 seductive manner. Even in flowers we have no more 

 beautiful patterns and colors and here these may be preserved 

 for the most part perfectly and for a life time in a Collection. 

 Tints which we do not find in Art often brought together, 

 are here harmoniously blended, as the blue and green in 

 the Wandering Hawk Moth, Aryeus lalruscae, and the pink 

 and yellow of the Rosy Dryocampa. The moths afford 

 superb instances of the blending of neutral tints, unspeakably 

 soft browns and grays, as in the Smerinthinae and the 

 "False Hawk Moths", the species of the Bombycid genus 

 Apatelodes. These two, A, angelica and A. tonrfficfa, are 

 remarkable for their casual resemblance to certain un- 

 ocellated Sm&rmtliinae, no less than for the delicacy of 

 their shaded neutral colors. It is owing to the natural 

 constitution of the human mind, that it is pleasantly occupied 

 in observing the different forms, in solving the many questions 



