INTRODUCTION. 



a sunny nook in a wood, n hot sandbank, or the margin of a 

 stream, and watch the proceedings of the numberless inserts 

 which frequent these spots. 



Examine, for instance, the clear water, and watch the 

 movements of the various aquatic insects with which it 

 abounds ; and especially observe the silvery silky globe which 

 the diving water-spider bears about with it, and in which, in 

 an enlarged form, it passes the winter. Observe the mode 



I living water-spider, in its diving bull, fixed to plants at the bottom of the water. 



in which the butterfly, resting upon a flower, extracts the 

 honey from its cup : trace the flight of the sandwasp. and 

 notice the peculiarities of its manurnvres in the construction 

 of its burrow: examine with careful eye the movements of 

 the sawfly in the act of forming a channel in the sprig for 

 the reception of its eggs ; or listen to the chirping of the 

 field-cricket, and trace it to the burrow, at the month of 

 which it sits ready to dart upon its prey. 



Notice these things, and then say whether these and a 

 thousand other observations of a similar nature are not in- 

 finitely more interesting than the mere pursuit and capture 

 of specimens, or the dry technical detail necessary for their 

 specific determination. 



"Those who have studied nature only in books," observes 

 St. Pierre, ''can see only their books in nature : they look 



