Vol. XXV. No. 9.] 
POPULAE SCIE:f^CE NEWS. 
138 
street, (Chapel entrance), Mr. 6. S. Stanton de- 
livered a lecture on the "Geology of Manhattan 
Island and Vicinity," illustrated by the stereopti- 
con. On the same evening Mr. \V. T. Demarest 
read a paper on "Popular Science." 
Theodore G. White, Cor. Sec, 
39 West 26th street. 
The next quarterly meeting of the New York 
City Assembly will be held on Wednesday, Octo- 
ber 14, at 8 P. M., at the Friends' Seminary, East 
16th street and Eutherford place. Mr. J. D. 
Hyatt, of Chapter 490, will discuss the question, 
"Do Plants Show a Degree of Intelligence in 
Their Movements ? " A paper will be read by Mr. 
John Cox, Jr., of Chapter 862. All are cordially 
invited. — Theodore G. White, Sec. 
KEY TO THE MORE COMMON FAMILIES 
OF INSECTS. 
Prof. L. C. Wooster, of the State Normal 
School, Whitewater, Wisconsin, has prepared a 
pamphlet of fifty-two pages, which is designed to 
enable the student to trace any insect to its proper 
family as readily as one identifies a plant by a 
manual of botany. It also contains check tablets 
for the convenient description of specimens, and 
much valuable information regarding insects 
hardly accessible elsewhere without considerable 
expense. Professor Wooster Idndly oilers this 
pamphlet to members of the Agassiz Association 
at the cost of printing and postage, i. e., twenty- 
five cents; and at this rate his edition ought to be 
exhausted in a week. Address him directly at 
Whitewater, Wis. 
WANTED — NATIVE PLANTS OF MAINE. 
The publishers of the Mining and Scientific Re- 
view, 1,209 17th street, Denver, Col., oft'er to send 
their journal for one year to any member of the 
A. A. who will send them by mail a few of any of 
the following native plants of Maine, viz. : Or- 
chids of any kind, jack-in-the-pulpit, wood lilies 
of any kind, ferns of any kind. Address H. L. 
Wadsworth, as above. 
WILL THE A. A. ASSIST? 
Brown University Herbarium desires seeds and 
fruits of every kind; also fibers, wood-sections, 
etc. ; all for a rapidly growing Economic Mu- 
seum. — W. W. Bailey. 
[No one lias done more for our Association than 
Professor Bailey, who for several years has freely 
contributed for our delight and instruction arti- 
cles both on plant and insect life. We trust that 
our members will be quick to seize this opportu- 
nity of doing him a small favor in return. — Ed.] 
*♦+ 
[Written for "The Out-DoOr World."] 
BUTTERFLIES. 
BY W. WHITMAN BAILEY. 
Butterflies were my first love. In years 
which, judged by events, seem now pre-Adamite, 
I used to chase butterflies by flood and field. 
" Through tangled juniper, beds of seeds," through 
brake and green-brier, now scaling clifis with the 
agility of Bertram Eisinghame, now leaping from 
tuft to tuft of swamp sedge, I have pursued the de- 
lusive Papilio, and him of the swallow-tails, yclept 
Turnus, for miles. Creature comforts and appetite 
become secondary considerations, and if, after a 
morning of such devotion, I lost my fly at last, I 
returned home crest-fallen, peevish, and hard to 
please. Amiability grew with success. The cap- 
ture of a new moth made me absolutely dance 
with joy. I used to draw and paint these gaudy 
fellows, and easily handle their sesqui-pedalian 
names. Curiously enough, what I then learned 
remains in my memory now. Although circum- 
stances long ago drafted me into other occupa- 
tions, I have always been afraid that in some way 
I would be led back into the old paths, and now, 
indeed, am using the scoop-net for my little boy, 
who has strongly inherited the craze. 
When out on a botanico-entomological trip I am 
always interested to find others engaged in the 
same occupation. Rarely am I, under these cir- 
cumstances, repulsed. Curious and diverse ex- 
periences has one going into the chase after Lepi- 
doptera. Nothing trains one to more acute obser- 
vation. To any leaf there may be a chrysalis pen- 
dant; every chink in a wall may conceal some- 
thing of interest; almost every flower may hold 
some insect worthy of capture. Then, as soon as 
it is known to one's friends that he rides such a 
iiobby, upon him are poured contributions of all 
all sorts ; hawk-moths, gauze-winged darning- 
needles, beetles, bugs, and all creeping things of 
the earth. Thus I find it hard to confine my 
attention to Lepidoptera, for the donors always 
desire afterward to recognize their own gifts in my 
collection. Tliere should be an underground rail- 
way from every museum, for the elimination of 
trash. Yet, in putting aside the wortliless, one 
must take care not to wound the sensitiveness of 
any. Editorial tact and delicacy must be consid- 
ered. It might, indeed, be well to have a printed 
form to the eflfect that " we regret that this really 
admirable bug is at present, owing to the pressure 
on our shelves, unavailable." 
What can be more marvellous to watch than 
the transformation of a butterfiy? No wonder 
the Greeks called it Psyche, or the soul ! There is 
a caterpillar feasting on a branch of elm. He 
daily waxes larger ; he may several times change 
his waist-coat; finally he suspends himself by a 
little rill to a leaf. We return to him next day, 
and there is a worm no longer, but a dry mummy. 
Days or weeks elapse, and then emerges a beauti- 
ful creature, winged and joyous. Its whole na- 
ture is changed and glorified. Where it fed by 
means of jaws on crude foliage, it now sips the 
nectar of flowers through a long proboscis. 
One can secure very fine specimens by feeding 
the caterpillars in a box covered with netting or 
gauze, and is then able to observe the transfor- 
mation. Rub off a little of the dust from a but- 
terflies wing and consider it under a compound 
micrescope. Each scale is now seen to be a fan 
of exquisite finish, burnished and glittering with 
a hundred hues, broad or attenuated, entire at the 
apex or serrated. While the instrument is set up, 
let us look at the plumed antennae of some moth, 
or his compound eyes. There is no limit to the 
wonder revealed. 
Everyone knows how moths are attracted to a 
light. We have had many good specimens fly in 
at night, but the best way is to attract the 
nocturnal kinds by a light out-of-doors to some 
sweet substance, as sugar or molasses. There is 
an uncanny feeling as one awaits results. As 
even insects probably suffer some pangs and cast 
a longing look behind — it we must catch them, let 
us be merciful about it. The best way is to take 
with one a bottle of chloroform, or a bottle with 
some cyanide of potassium, kept in the bottom by 
plaster of paris. This cyanide, however, is a 
deadly poison and I never let my children use it. 
While chloroform wets the bodies and wings, it 
soon evaporates, and for ordinary collections does 
no harm. It is better to err on the side of safety. 
There are many excellent books on butterflies. 
We may still employ with advantage Harris's 
" Insects Injurious to Vegetation." Then there are 
the useful series prepared l)y Professor Packard ; 
Scudder's small book on butterflies, and his im- 
mortal three-volumne work, as well as the superb 
volumes of Edwards, and the works of Riley and 
others. Any good library will furnish one with 
working books. Almost every large city pos- 
sesses some skilled entomologist, to whom one 
can refer for guidance, advice, or assistance. 
SQUIRRELS EAT RATS. 
El Modena, Cal., \ 
July 13, 1891. J 
I noticed in the latest issue of Popular Sci- 
ence Nf-WS an article entitled, "A Squirrel's 
Unusual Sleal," which, though out of my line, 
interests me very much, for I once saw something 
of the same kind, but had not thought it worth 
printing. It was three years ago. We were 
breaking up some land, and one man was plowing 
while the rest of us were grubbing cactus. He 
had been plowing around the laud, leaving an un- 
broken piece of about three acres in the center. 
As he went down he scared a number of kangaroo 
rats out of their holes. These rats started for the 
center, where there were a number of squirrel- 
holes. The ground-squirrels were very tame. As 
one rat came toward them, two squirrels started 
after it. AVhen the ploughman, who was watch- 
ing the rats as they bounded over the ground, saw 
the squirrels in pursuit, he thouglit they were 
playing, but soon other squirrels took a hand in 
the game, and it began to get exciting. He called 
to me, for, as he had caught snakes and other 
things for me, he thought I would like to see this 
fight ; but by the time I got over to where he was 
standing, the squirrels had caught the rat and 
commenced to eat it. I had seen squirrels eat 
berries, grain, and seeds, but this was something 
new. We watched them a while; then we went 
over to them, when they all ran into their holes, 
leaving the carcass, which was devoured except 
the hind quarter and the head. 
George Hoyt, 
Cor. Mem. Chapter 1. 
CARNIVOROUS SQUIRRELS. 
I THINK H. H. Piper is hardly correct in attrib- 
uting to starvation tlie eating of earth-worms by 
tlie striped ground-squirrel, or chipmunk. My 
home as a boy was in Saratoga County, New 
York, and I well remember watching a chipmunk 
as, seated upon an old stone wall by the roadside, 
he made a meal of an angle-worm, holding it in 
his fore paws and eating from one end while the 
other dangled to the stone on which he sat. On 
eitlier side of the road was an apple orchard, while 
butternut trees, berry bushes, and grasses grew 
along the fences. But a few rods in either of two 
directions stood a farm house, with its garden, 
bams, granaries, stables, pig-pens, etc. It is also 
not uncommon to find on the fences where the 
chipmunk abounds^ fragments of earth-worms, as 
though left from the last meal. — J. T. MORET, 
Kearney, Nebraska. 
■ <♦♦ 
UNITED STATES IN ACCOUNT WITH THE 
AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION. DR. TO ONE 
SCIENTIST, ? 
Each reader must fill in the blank left above 
according to his own estimate of the value to the 
country of lifting a young man from a lower to a 
higher plane of life. The following is only one 
case out of hundreds that might be given ; 
