78 ■ C'ATOCALA NOMENCLATURE. 



with C. Clintonii, C. Robinsonii, etc. ; it is, however, done, and irrevoeabiy so, and we can only in sadness 

 submit. I can not, liowever, refrain from thinking that there is a great deal in the appropriateness of a name, 

 for I never yet knew one of your George Washington Smiths, or John Quincy Adams Warrens, or Michael 

 Angelo Jones, leaving any very perceptible foot-prints on the .sands of time, and vividly I remember, whilst 

 walking, years ago, through a plantation in S. Carolina, that every third field hand was Julius C;esar Aga- 

 memnon, or Mark Antony Aurelius, and one burly fellow carried, in addition to about 300 pouuds adipose 

 tissue, the fearful additional load of Clarence Theophrastus Columbus Porchcr liarton. In the case of these 

 overloaded unfortunates, the grandeur of the name was, like the helmet in the "Castle of Otranto," crushing 

 instead of adorning. In the case of the beauteous and wonderful works of nature it is just the contrary, their 

 loveliness and marvelous structure are such that the grandest names of science, art and history .seem almost too 

 feeble to apply to them, whilst names of le.s.ser note cannot be exalted by the association, but serve only as a 

 blot to deface the beautiful. I believe that all that is great and sublime in nature and art is more or le.ss 

 intimately connected, but now, in Heaven's name, what grandeur, or historical or poetical idea can we associate 

 with such names? It is true, they may answer the purpo.se of identification, but so would Catocala No. 1, 

 Catocala No. 2, etc., for that matter equally as well, but how different when we gaze on the gorgeous 

 Priamus Butterfly* what a flood of thought it suggests ! the court of the old Trojan King arises and is " fol- 

 lowed fast anil followed faster" by each varied .scene of the Iliad; the Golden Crcesus f reminds in an instant 

 of the magnificence of the Lydian monarch and the death of the hapless A tys ; and the splendid Sardanapalus,| 

 of the smnptuousne.ss of that prince; and Hunil)oldtii,§ though any to whom .science is dear scarce need a 

 reminder, of one far exceeding in rank all of earth's potentates, one of whom a monarch of Europe once said, 

 " Der groesste inann seit Noah."|| 



EXTOMOLOGICA L NOTES. 



POLAR LKPIDOPTERA. — Diiriti'; a recent visit to Wiishins;lon I h.-id the opportunity of examiniii;;, at llie Smitlisoniaii In.stitu- 

 tion, tlie few enloinolojjical c.'caraplcs cuileoteci by I>r. ICniil lio.-ssels, of tlie iinfortunate " Polaris Expedition," at Polaris Kay, N. Lat. 

 81°, 83°. There are three species of Lepidoptera, Het., which 1 identilied as follows: 



Ditsychira Hossii, {L'lria R.) Curtis. Ross's 2nd Voy. App. Ts'at. Hist., p. 70, t. A, (lS35l, one pair rf ?, also the weh with egga 

 Hurroundcd by the liair of the larva. Tliis species ha.s been found al.so in N. E. Labrador. 



Anarta liichardsoiii, {ILuhna R.) Curtis, Ross's App., p. 72, t X, (1835). A. Ati/ida, Lefdtvrc, \m\. Soc. Kr.. :W5, PI. 10, ;">, (1836). 

 Two examples. Occurs also in Labrador ami Northern Norway, and I have seen one example taken on Mt. Washington, New 

 Hampshire. 



Cidaria .Sabini, { Psijchophora S.) Curtis, Hos.s's App., p. 73, t. .\, (183-5), five or six examples. The later described C. Frigidaria, 

 (in., found in Laplaml, is doubtless identical with this species. 



There are also several examples of a Ilymenopterous insect, Bombus Kirbiellus, Curtis; ami a Diptera, Tipula Arctica, Curtis, both 

 figureil and described in the same work as the Lepidoptera above. 



After my e.vamination of these entomological tr«a.sures, still having some time to spare, I strolled through various other dei>artments 

 of the Museum of the Institution ; on reaching the upper apartment, devoted mainly to easts and remains oi" pre-Adaniitc animals, and 

 whilst gazing on these stupendous relics of a period wrapt in obscurity almost eipial to that of futurity itself, I was roused from my 

 musings by the sound of a succession of raps on some evidently hard substance, when on turning my head 1 saw two animals of the 

 present era, ?r?, with artilicial coverings of the texture and appearance of broadcloth and silk, comnuming together, and at short inter- 

 vals striking, the one with a cane, the other with the end of a parasol, the cast of the (ilyptodon; every rap caused a white mark to' 

 ap])car, the result of tlu' striking looic of the pigment from the plaster which it covered; 1 much fear I had little regard for etiquette or 

 the rules of well-bred society, for without a moment's rellection I expressed to those disguised Yahoos my umpialilied o|iinion of their 

 Vandalic conduct, whicli, of course, like all o)iiuions unsolicited, was by no means gracefully received; nor was mv e(|uanimitv further 

 restored, after the departure of these poor mindless things, by perceiving on the frontal plate or bone of the same (ilyptoilon, that some 

 wret<dies had scrawled their jiitiful, miserable, unknown, degraded names! But bidding farewell to the thoughts of these debased crea- 

 tures, not one tithe ;is noble as the monster who.se semblance or remains they conlaminated, I left the ajiartment and wended my way 

 towards other obie<'ts of interest. Ere I close I caimot fail to express my appreciation of the uniform kindness and attention I received 

 from the various .scienliliir gentlemen connected with the Institution, as well as from those of the neighboring Museum of the Agricultural 

 Ue|iartnient, the latter almost .solely the creation of the untiring, iudefatigahle Prof, (ilover. 



Finally, I can scarce avoid mentioning, among the vast nundjer of examples of nature and art accumulated in the Museum of the, 

 Smithsonian Ins., the splendiil specimens of the great Rocky Mt. (ioat, an animal so rare as almost to have led one to the bilief that it 

 was apocryphal ; the cast (jf the shell of an innucnse'.'Cheloniaii whieli measures nearly three paces in length and two in width, and is about 

 four feet in height ; a huge Octopus (the Devil- Fish of Victor lingo's "Toilers of the Sea,") in alcohol, which we should judge to meas- 

 ure, with arms extended from tip to tip some ten feet or more, and a single arm of another much larger; the luimerousand most curious 

 wood carvings, etc., etc., of the Alaska Indians, their Masque of Death, the Bird that brought their fathers from the Lord only knows 

 where. In the Geological and Mineralogical Department, uiuler the supervision of my fellow-townsman. Dr. Endlich, is a huge mass of 

 native copper, weighing I ilon't know how nuich, and surmomited by a famous aerolite of fabulous proportions. Good friends, I must 

 cIo.se, or 1 do not kn<iw when I might stop; you will perhaps sny this is not Lepidopterology, why should it be here introduced? true, 



*Ornithoptera Priannis, Linn.aeus, Mus. Lud. Ul. Reg., p. 182, (1764). 

 fOrnithoptera Cnesus, Wallace, I'roc. Ent. .Soc, Ser. II, Vol. V, p. 70, (1859). 

 t Agria.s Sardanapalus, Bates, Proe Ent. .Soc, Ser. II, Vol. V, p. Ill, (1860). 

 ^Tithorea Ilundxildtii, Latr., Perisama Humboldtii, Guer. 

 II The greatest man since the flood. 



