92 The Naturalist of Cumbrae. 



introduces so many to entomological studies, had 

 never aroused any particular enthusiasm in David. 

 It was therefore quite by way of exception that one 

 Sunday morning, when his wife and he were taking a 

 walk on Glasgow Green before church time, he caught 

 a red butterfly and a white one, Vanessa urticce, the 

 small tortoise-shell, and Pontia brassica, the large 

 white butterfly. For want of any more suitable 

 receptacle, he stuck them with pins on the inside of 

 his hat. He and his wife then went to church, and 

 had been in their seats for some time when he noticed 

 that a lady appeared to be looking at him with a 

 kind of mischievous smile on her face. He then 

 remembered the butterflies, and to be sure, there they 

 were both fluttering on the crown of his head. 

 Neither his wife nor he stared much at the people in 

 church for the rest of that forenoon, nor did they 

 venture to show their faces there again in the after- 

 noon. No catching of butterflies on Sunday has to 

 be chronicled hereafter. 



His chief thoughts at this period were not devoted 

 either to fossils or insects. Early in the morning he 

 used to go to one or other of the Firestone potteries, 

 to select such goods as were wanted for the shop. 

 He never ordered more than there was cash in hand 

 to pay for. By and by some of the travelling dealers 

 began to drop in for odd things. There were always 

 some new shapes or patterns being made at the 

 potteries, and for these the demand was often greater 

 than the supply. Robertson being a confirmed early 

 riser, and going the first thing in the morning when 

 the ware was taken out of the kilns, could generally 



