WITH INSECT WINGS 175 



have been the utmost limit of their life. And in 

 winter, perchance in some grimy town, it i.s cer- 

 tainly pleasant to open a box or a drawer and find 

 within an array of bright wings, gay as wildflowers, 

 recalling the warmth and life of summer. This is 

 pleasant enough, but deeper enjoyment may be 

 obtained by quietly watching the insects when 

 they are full of life and activity about their 

 favourite flowers, and leaving them as found, still 

 free and uninjured. Nor do we thus deny our- 

 selves all scientific data, for there are other sources 

 of information than those dependent on the inflic- 

 tion of death. A man's best museum is his mind, 

 which he can store not with dusty specimens 

 recording the triumph of cupidity over kindness, 

 but with memories of pleasant scenes, none the 

 less enjoyable because kindly. And if it seems 

 well for the sake of science to engulf in a decep- 

 tive green net some flaunting fairy all aglow with 

 sunshine, and life, and energy ; if we witness with- 

 out pity her poor struggle for freedom, administer 

 a fatal nip, and pin her in the box, we have not 

 only acquired what may be a fine specimen. There 

 is something else come to us unbidden. 



