246 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



a simple and irrefragable natural law refuting peremptorily the thesis 

 of the enthusiastic propugnators of the pedigree rooting somewhere 

 amid a grinning tribe gamboling in the wild forests of Asia or Africa. 

 The criterion that the human race has large, round hands and blunt 

 canine teeth would be sufficient of itself to establish the truth that no 

 monkey-blood is pulsating in our veins ; but there are more distinctive 

 features. Men have strong, well-shaped legs, walk constantly in an 

 erect posture, and enjoy the faculty of speech. 



The monkeys rank near humanity in the general organization of 

 the world ; they show in many instances much likeness with mankind, 

 physically as well as intellectually. But a further concession would 

 be a denial of positive natural laws. Nay ! old Adam was not a monk- 

 ey, not a baboon, not even a chimpanzee ! 



MOTHS AND MOTH-CATCHEKS. 



By AUGUSTUS E. GEOTE, A. M. 



ONE day, in the British Museum, while waiting a moment in a 

 room where entomological specimens were exhibited, I saw two 

 workmen bending over a case containing butterflies and moths. 



" There is the Camberwell Beauty," said one, pomting out a par- 

 ticular example to his companion. 



"Ay ! " was the ejaculatory response, and the tone of that "Ay !" 

 I am not likely to forget. It took me at once to the speaker's proba- 

 bly humble home, stored with treasured specimens in their boxes, 

 pinned down low, labeled and arranged. How many hours of stormy 

 evenings had not been pleasurably spent in sorting and debating, in 

 setting and classifying, these downy bits of Nature's finery ! From 

 how much worse employment may not these "little beauties" have 

 saved their owner ! 



There is no doubt that in England, as well as in France and Ger- 

 many, the collecting of moths is a very general recreation as compared 

 with the United States. That it is harmless is a negative praise ; that 

 a pursuit of its objects is healthful, and takes the man who works in 

 the city out into the fresh country air, is a positive recommendation. 

 But the labor is also instructive. Things have now changed very 

 much since the days of Malpighi, and biology is a respected and neces- 

 sary study. And throughout the world of animated beings it may be 

 safely said that the growth and changes of life can nowhere be so 

 easily and pleasantly observed as in the rearing of butterflies and 

 moths from the egg. As to butterflies, it may be asserted that they 

 are less interesting than their cousins the moths, who constitute the 



