190 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



edition of this work. Provide yourself with topographical maps 

 of the region you are to visit. A camera should add interest to 

 these trips, but do not expect satisfactory pictures of plants 

 taken when the wind is rated at sixty miles an hour." 



"Why I Collect Beetles" 



Hobbies abound in the realm of animal life as well as in the 

 plant kingdom. Mr. Martin Bowe, who illustrated the recent 

 Park Museum Bulletin on Beetles, writes of his hobby: 



"Nature has much attraction for those who can imagine that, 

 when God created life on this earth, He gave each individual 

 plant or animal the power to enjoy this life, to protect it in a 

 measure and to perpetuate it. Since we cannot create life we 

 should not thoughtlessly destroy it. Every plant and creature 

 exists for an ultimate purpose, of which we know little or nothing. 

 We study Nature to find this purpose for species, group or branch. 



Insects serve as food for birds, fishes, frogs, snakes and many 

 other animals. Insects are scavangers, which remove quickly to 

 the soil unsightly and unhealthy dung heaps, dead animals and 

 dead vegetation. When certain kinds of insects get so numerous 

 that they become a pest, injurious to our crops or trees they have 

 to be held in check either by natural agencies, such as birds, 

 fishes, frogs or if need be, by poisons etc. When I started to 

 collect beetles I was quite young and it was more of a pastime. 

 Now I may call it a study for the joy of the possession of a speci- 

 men is secondary to the joy of the knowledge of its existence m a 

 certain locality, and its place in our own lives. I collect Rhode 

 Island beetles only because I expect to be able to do it thoroughly 

 in my spare time." 



"How I Started to Collect Beetles" 

 "Over in Europe, when I went to school, in the month cf May 

 the boys used to play with May Beetles. We had baskets filled 

 with linden leaves to keep them in and we used to barter them for 

 others, for there are half a dozen varieties, a "king" or "queen" 

 being considered a fair exchange for half a dozen "chimney sweep- 

 ers." A May Beetle is about an inch long, has white saw-edge 

 markings just below the brown wing covers, black chest and head, 

 large eyes and fan-shaped feelers. Otherwise it looks like a big 



