76 EEV. C. M. PERKINS — BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



first half of August I have found it advisable to recruit my health 

 some distance away, or I am sure I could have given you much 

 more home information. I think a record should be kept by every 

 society of this kind of all the species the neighbourhood affords in 

 every branch of science, and as soon as possible a museum should 

 be commenced in connection with it, to which all the members 

 would doubtless be pleased to contribute as opportunity ofl'ered, 

 and by means of which such instruction might be afforded as 

 books alone cannot give. 



I fear my paper has been already far too long, yet before closing 

 I would make yet one remark. It may seem to some that it has too 

 much encouraged the taking away of life ; but if any have formed 

 that opinion, I should wish at once to dispel it. I allow I have 

 taken many, very many lives in pursuing this science ; but I assure 

 you, I believe I have prolonged the lives of ten times more than I 

 have taken. As we spy about in search of prey ourselves, we find 

 vast numbers of our prey in difficulties, caught perhaps in the 

 snare some natural enemy has set for them, drowning perhaps in the 

 water, or — what I always think worse — burning in the flame. 

 These we rescue from a painful and lingering death, while the few 

 we take we destroy in the most merciful way we can. Were we 

 to put them to a lingering death or one attended with torture, they 

 would beat themselves about in their death struggles and not be 

 worth our preserving. Nor need you think when you see us out 

 that we necessarily are destroying life. For the hundred we catch 

 we do not kill one. My pleasure is to go to some old haunt and 

 find the insect still there whose ancestor I saw perhaps the year 

 before, perhaps not since a dozen years ago, but I leave them un- 

 injured to enjoy their gay brief life. In several cases I have not 

 added one specimen to my collection which I made more than 

 twenty years ago. 



Cruelty to the least of God's creatures I abhor, and would dis- 

 countenance to the utmost all in the pursuit of this science who 

 make it their first object to kill all they catch, or even kill with 

 torture what they want ; but to those who collect with a view to 

 science, I can heartily wish God speed, knowing well they will 

 discover in their researches more of the inscrutable power of the 

 Creator, and by remarking the beauty, the regularity, and more 

 especially the instinctive impulses which the Almighty has im- 

 planted in these lower animals, they will be induced to magnify 

 their Creator more and more, and ascribe to Him that glory and 

 honour and power of which He verily is worthy, for whose pleasure 

 they are and were created. 



