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 fr.w days, and we 

 may thus prolong their beauty by preser /ing 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 



