tlic iilaytiiiu- hours of t\V(j Inisy people. It is a coUectitui of actual plioto- 

 grai)hs of a few of the small-sized monsters whieh iiilialiit the tall iirass, the 

 flower garden and vegetalile garden, the pines and oaks of a place in the woods 

 of Maryland. 



If it should show to others a world of new and fascinating things it would 

 be sim|)ly doing for them what the taking of the photographs has done for 

 us, o])eTied the door into a realm of real life, of a terrible struggle to li\-e, 

 which is as full of fascination as the dragon tales of old Japan. At the same 

 time, it makes us realize wliat va.st and yet untonchefl fields of material 

 value lie in the efforts man is making to outwit and circumvent and c\en, 

 ]ierhai)s, to exterminate such of the monsters as encroach upon his own 

 environment. 



now THE MONSTER PHOTOGRAPHS WERE TAKEX 



If you compare these photographs with those to be found in most Ijooks 

 on insects, you will find that they differ in several ]>articulars. They are all 

 either front views or side views of the creatures, whereas those in books on 

 entomology are generally ^•iews from abo^'e. Imagine a book on the horse 

 in which only top views were shown, or a guiile to a zoological garden ilhis- 

 trated with the various wild lieasts photographed from above. It is true that, 

 being so much larger, we generally look tlown at these monsters, l)nt a mouse 

 also generally runs along the floor or under our feet and yet a zoologist pic- 

 tures it from the same point of view that he does an elephant. Crows look 

 down upon us, yet I imagine that no one will admit that the crow's impression 

 of human beings is as correct or as interesting as that which we ha\e of our- 

 selves. Every creature has a right to be ]wrtrayed from its own level, and 

 the reason these photographs are unusual is because the>- carry out this 

 princi])Ie and do each creature justice. 



Another i)articuhir in wliich these pictures are new is that, although they 

 represent magnihcations of from five to twenty diameters, they are not en- 

 largements from small photographs, but views taken directly from ox? 

 ])hotogTai>hic negatives. 



Then too, these creatures ha\e l)eeu poseil with considerable care in order 

 to give them a lifelike appearance, and this work was done immediately 

 after they had been anesthetized, and in some cases while they were still alive. 



The whole art of taking these large |)hotographs of insects is so simjjle that 

 thousands of amateurs ought to be able to take them. 



The outfit consists of the camera, which is just a long box, a long-focus lens, 

 a jjiece of ground glass and a focusing glass, a flash light, a pair of ])incers, 

 some needles mounted in handles or else some small dental tools, a few little 

 blocks of wood, a candle, a piece of glass covered with tissue jiaper, and a long 

 hollow cylinder made of stiff' black paper or cardboard. Add to these a great 

 deal of i)atience and you lia\'e all that is needed. 



[7] 



