INSECTS BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL 261 



their lives, habits, and instincts in a way that the older 

 methods cannot approach. I shall never forget with what 

 a growing sense of wonder I first watched a parsnip but- 

 terfly as she laid her eggs. It was before I had read 

 Gibson's description of butterflies as botanists. There 

 were long, straight rows of vegetables the length of the 

 garden, — one of carrots and, several rows removed, one 

 of parsnips. The plants had just put forth the third leaf, 

 and it was about all I could do to distinguish them from 

 the numerous weeds ; but that little creature, for nearly 

 an hour, unerringly laid her eggs either on the carrots or 

 the parsnips. I have often thought that I never learned 

 so much from all the collections of insects, including my 

 own, as I did from that living butterfly. It was a reve- 

 lation to me. 



Still there is much to be said on the other side. Col- 

 lections of butterflies are different from collections of 

 birds. A mounted butterfly may retain its natural beauty 

 to a greater degree. Butterflies are not intrinsically so 

 valuable as birds for the work they do in nature. Most 

 of them at best are but creatures of a few days, and we 

 may thus prolong their beauty by preserving them. On 

 the whole, if it is done with care, and if the specimens 

 are used as a means by which to stimulate study of the 

 life and work of the species rather than as an end in 

 themselves, I should encourage butterfly collections both 

 in the school cabinet and on the part of the children 

 who wish to make them. In doing the collecting, how- 

 ever, it is a good rule to examine all specimens before kill- 

 ing them and to let all the imperfect ones go. There are 

 so few perfect specimens that the species will suffer but 



