JUNE. 113 



Often have I seen dozens of pill-boxes emptied of their 

 defunct inhabitants and scores of insects consigned to 

 the flames, that by the exercise of a little industry- 

 mi ght have been retained in good condition by their 

 owners, or have formed a most acceptable and welcome 

 present to some Entomological tyro. 



But, further, we have no right to destroy indiscrimi- 

 nately and purposelessly any of the innumerable living 

 creatures that inhabit and beautify this earth. 



" They are as free to enjoy as we to live." 



Why then should we wantonly cut short their little 

 span of existence, and then suffer them to decay, useless 

 alike to ourselves and others ? Be sure the tyro who 

 is habitually guilty of such conduct will never become 

 an Entomologist in heart. Nature is never wasteful 

 of animal life ! why then should man be ? How do 

 we know that the Great Author of their being (as well 

 as our's) does not hold them in his estimation as especial 

 evidences of his creative power, seeing that he has not 

 only endowed them with great external beauty, but has 

 given even the smallest of them a muscular system of 

 such power, that if the elephant was endowed with the 

 strength of these insects, in proportion to his size, his 

 powers of destruction would be fearful to contemplate. 



Thomas Rymer Jones, F.R.S. (in his " General 

 Outline of the Animal Kingdom," page 250, paragraph 

 292), says :— 



" The muscular system of insects has always excited 

 the wonder and astonishment of the naturalist, in what- 

 ever point of view he examines this part of their eco- 



