2 Bugs, Butterflies, and Beetles 



Probably the first collection the reader will 

 want to make will be butterflies, not because 

 butterflies have more interesting lives or bodies, 

 or even are the most beautiful, for some beetles 

 rival the butterflies in beauty, but because but- 

 terflies are better advertisers than any of the rest 

 of the insects. They display their beauties, at- 

 tract the attention of the boys and even of the 

 more stupid grown people. I say stupid grown 

 people, because one boy of twelve who is alert 

 and fond of nature will see and observe more 

 things than the best-trained naturalist of thirty. 

 A boy of twelve has not had his mind bothered by 

 worldly things which dull the perception of a man, 

 consequently the boy will see more, feel more, hear 

 more, and smell more than the older person. 



Not long since I was in the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution at Washington in one of the private rooms 

 not open to the general public and there I was 

 shown drawer after drawer of butterflies, some of 

 them so closely resembling each other that only a 

 scientist could detect the points of diff'erence, and 

 enough of them to probably cover an acre or more 

 of ground. 



Few of my readers will want to make such a vast 



