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Art. XX. — Communications on the Natural History of North 

 America. By Edward Doubleday. 



Philadelphia, Hh of September^ 1837. — Mr. Peale informs me 

 that this is a bad year for insects ; but still that in a few spots 

 they have been plentiful ; and I learn also from Mr. Lea that 

 where hundreds of butterflies might be taken last year, few 

 can now be seen ; I hear, also, that further south I should 

 have obtained more Papiliones, but far fewer Nuctuw and Geo- 

 metrw, therefore, though I have not many butterflies, I am 

 not disposed to grumble. Mr. Peale says the south will well 

 repay me ; he collected in New Granada fifteen hundred 

 species of Lepidoptera, some of which are very fine. 



Philadelphia is certainly a fine city; its broad straight 

 streets crossing at right angles, its large square, the banks 

 and public offices, and even occasional private residences of 

 fine white marble, — the marble steps to most private residences, 

 the extensive stores, the rows of trees, &;c. &c. all strike 

 a stranger very forcibly ; I was particularly pleased with the 

 markets, some nearly a mile in length, under cover. You 

 see here a profusion of every kind of melons, water-melons, 

 squashes, peaches, pears, apples, tomatos (as big as one's fist, 

 sometimes much bigger), capsicums ; the fruit of the egg-plant, 

 especially the purple one, far larger than ostrich's eggs ; plums, 

 cucumbers, sweet potatoes, Lima beans (a delicious vegetable), 

 but no broad or Windsor beans, cabbages, 8ic. &c. Of fish 

 there is a great variety. 



I have visited Peale's Museum. 1 consider the animals 

 generally badly stufTed, but there are some very fine things : 

 however, the skeleton of the Mammoth is the wonder; nothing 

 that I have ever seen approaches it; an elephant's skeleton by 

 its side is as nothing to it. 



On Saturday I went to Wilmington, to see J. Wigglesworth, 

 and look over his museum. He has one room of Wax-work, 

 and two of Natural History. He tells me that he walked 

 hundreds of miles to collect the quantities oi Phalwna Cecropia 

 which he has sent to England ; he found the cocoons, and then 

 reai'ed the perfect insects ; he works most indefatigably to ob- 

 tain insects for us. He employs a number of children in the 



