252 



MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. 



not alike ; the males and females differ, and interesting varieties are 

 occasionally taken. Then he wislies to show both the upper and the 

 under side of the species, and at length he falls in with some other 

 beginner who wants to exchange, and he then tliinks of the many 

 good specimens he might have collected. His ideas enlarge with his 

 collections; liis collector friends and his need for good specimens for 

 exchange constantly increase, and the truth finally dawns on him 

 that large numbers of first-class specimens are not only a conven- 

 ience but almost a necessity if he desires to increase his own col- 

 lection beyond the limits of tliose which he can himself capture. 



Alfred Russell Wallace once told me that one of the hardest les- 

 sons he had to learn in ])is many years of collecting in tropical coun- 

 tries was that it is haixlly possible to get too many specimens of a 



Timetes petreus. 



good species of bird, shell, beetle or butterfly, and that on several 

 occasions he had retraced his journey hundreds of miles to little 

 known islands to procure additional specimens of species he had pre- 

 viously collected, at the time su})posing he liad taken all he would 

 ever need. 



One person can cover but a small })ortion of the earth's surface 

 during a lifetime, and one can expect to collect personalh' but a 



