38 NATURE STUDY. 



learn much that would be of great interest and value to 

 others as well as to himself. 



In order to understand many things about the wsLys of 

 wild creatures, we must know something of their structure, 

 and so must study their bodies. If public libraries and 

 .schools had good museums, as they ought, there would 

 be little need of our catching and killing on our own ac- 

 count, and we could give all the time we have for rambles 

 to " seeing things." As it is, while we must kill a few 

 individuals for study, we shall find that, if we go about it 

 rightly, we can learn much more from live creatures than 

 dead ones. In this lesson, or ramble, we will try to learn 

 something about 



THE BUTTERFI.Y. 



When you see a butterfly skimming over the field, hov- 

 ering about a blossom, or resting upon a leaf, you may feel 

 sure it is not seeking its own pleasure merely. Such ex- 

 pressions as " a butterfly existence " simply betray igno- 

 rance. The butterfly takes life ver}- seriously. It has but 

 a few weeks to live at the longest, and half its days may 

 be clouded, if not actually stormy and cold. In its brief 

 life it must not only seek food for itself but must find a par- 

 ticular kind of plant, favorably situated, upon which it 

 may place an egg here and there — or it may be, if the plant 

 is small, only one egg to a plant. It is not always a sim- 

 ple matter to find suitable plants that have not been ap- 

 propriated already, and while anxious search is being 

 made there are innumerable deadly perils to be escaped if 

 possible. So when we see a butterfly, we may be sure it 

 is at work, or resting to gain strength that it may work 

 again. 



To see anj^ creature living its life naturally we must 

 learn, as little Saint Guido did, not to " interfere." We 

 mu.st be silent, move very slowly, sometimes remain per- 



