Xll CONTENTS. 



history of the fugacious Butterfly, as typifying the flight of the immor- 

 tal soul, stands foremost for clearness, for exactitude, for beauty, and for 

 solemn import. 



So issue forth the Seasons. 



First we have "\YIXTER in his merriest mood, represented by the Cricket, 

 bedecked with Christmas holly, and alive with fun and jollity. By his 

 right hand he holds the Brimstone Butterfly, emblem of SPRING, prim- 

 rose of papilions in habits and in hue. Beneath, the jocund Grasshopper 

 linked to the above by a vernal wreath, figures the bright SUMMER 

 and in the glowing Peacock Butteriiy, rich in her velvet train as 

 the autumnal flowers she frequents, we welcome AUTUMN, bearing the 

 ripe sheaf and presenting her merry associate with the fruit of the vine. 



1. THE CRICKET. INTRODUCTORY. Page. 



The House Cricket, Acheta domestica, gaining access to the milk-jug by a 



sprig of holly .................. 3 



Episodes, then, they shall be call!. 



Symbolic portrait of the author in his character of the Cricket, Acheta do- 



mestica, selecting a title for his lucubrations ........ 11 



2. THE POINTS OF OUR HOBBY. 



The Cricket mounted on the back of a magnified May-Fly, Ephemera vul- 



yata, in search of entomological subjects ......... 12 



To the end of time this will carry us. 



Emblems of riches, rank, and the pomps and vanities of life outweighed in 

 the balance by the author's hobby of Entomology under the figure 

 of a May-Fly .................. 31 



3. FLIES IN WINTER, AND A FLY LEAF. 



A magnified representation of the House Fly, Musca domestica, crawling up 



