CHAPTER IV. 



INSECTS AND OTHER SMALL DEER AT WORK AND 



PLAY. 



I 



FRITILLARY BUTTERFLY. 



T is difficult to conceive 

 that the study of ento- 

 mology was held in so little 

 esteem a century or so ago 

 that an attempt was made 

 to set the will of a distin- 

 guished personage aside be- 

 cause its maker collected 

 insects, and must therefore 

 needs be considered a lunatic. 

 Happily, all this has long 

 ago been changed. Prejudice has been hope- 

 lessly overthrown by reason, and vast numbers 

 of people now find an inexhaustible mine of 

 recreative pleasure in studying the beautiful 

 forms, interesting habits, and wonderful instincts 

 of butterflies, moths, bees, beetles, spiders, ants, 

 and other small forms of life with which our 

 woods and fields literally teem. 



Butterflies claim first place in the esteem of 

 the great majority of students partly, no doubt, 



