MARtH. 47 



as the butterfly zigzags t>ff to safety down some 

 enclosed cabbage garden. f But, as is often the case, 

 the superstition has its utilitarian basis. Individually, 

 of course, it is silly to suppose that a year of bad 

 luck follows failure to catch a particular specimen of 

 a common butterfly in jspring ; but collectively a 

 rural community would ^ain much if they could kill 

 all the early white butterflies, for these are the parents 

 of the more numerous white butterflies of July, and 



the grandparents of the 



pillars which convert September's cabbages into fine 



lacework, and sometime 

 table, served up with th 

 cook. Such an acciden 

 luck " for the diner ; and 



host of unsavoury cater- 



incontinently appear at 



vegetables by a careless 



is certainly "cruel bad 



uperstition tells us how to 



save the cabbage and escape the caterpillar by killing 

 the early butterfly. 



THE ETHICS OF QUEEN-KILLING. 



Killing the early wasp is another custom sanctioned 

 alike by reason and tradition, although there may be 

 room for doubt whether wasps do not do more good 

 by slaying flies than harm by eating man's fruit and 

 stinging its owner. But so soon as you begin to 

 calculate profit and loss in natural history you are 

 lost in a wilderness of doubts. Why, for instance, 

 should we account the slaughter of flies as a benefit 

 conferred by the wasp upon mankind ? That we 

 dislike flies is true ; but they, in their turn, perform a 

 very useful scavengering work. And against such 

 doubtful service of the wasps there is the certain and 



