Popular Science Monthly 



875 



some of their native converts. Through 

 their agency large numbers of species 

 which formerly were of extreme rarity 

 or even unknown to science have been 

 obtained. 



Another region which furnishes numer- 

 ous interesting and highly prized but- 

 terflies is the high mountain ranges 

 of Central Asia, the Panier Range and 

 the Thian Shan Mountains. Formerly 

 species from these localities were scarcely 

 known outside of Russian collections, but 

 about eight years ago they began to ap- 

 pear on the market in enormous quanti- 

 ties. A Russian who had been com- 

 missioned by the Hagenbecks of Ham- 

 burg to secure live specimens of the 

 snow leopard occupied his spare moments 

 and those of his men in the early morning 

 hours by picking the half-frozen butter- 

 flies off the flower heads on which they 

 had rested over night. To judge by 

 the quantities he secured by this method 

 the region must have been a veritable 

 Eldorado for the butterfly collector. 

 As a result of his activities several 

 species which formerly commanded a 

 price of from ten dollars to twenty dol- 

 lars a specimen became an absolute 

 drug on the market and were almost 

 given away. 



Two Hundred Dollars for a Glittering 

 Butterfly 



Of course there still remain some rare 

 exotic butterflies for which possibly a 

 wealthy collector might be willing to pay 

 from one hundred dollars to two hundred 

 dollars a specimen, but such species can 

 almost be counted on one's ten fingers; 

 and it is safe to say that within the next 

 fifty years even the price of these will be 

 considerably reduced, for as soon as col- 

 lectors become acquainted with their 

 habits and haunts and succeed in 

 breeding them the supply will at once 

 increase. 



In our own country, where half the 

 indigenous species of butterflies known to 

 science have been described within the 

 last sixty years, there is probably no 

 species for which more than fi\e dollars a 

 specimen would be paid, and the ma- 

 jority of species could be purchased for 

 less than one-tenth of this sum; the 

 ' rarest ones are those frequenting the 

 desert regions of the Southwest and the 



great barren lands of the Far North. 

 The inaccessibility of these regions is 

 again the cause of the rarity, for the very 

 fact that they have remained unmolested 

 in their haunts by man and his civiliza- 

 tion is proof enough that at certain 

 seasons they should be found in large 

 numbers. 



In this connection, and as an illustra- 

 tion of the contention, the following story 

 is told at the expense of one of the best 

 known private collectors in the country. 

 In the early eighties a collector brought 

 back with him from Arizona two or three 

 specimens of a new species of butterfly 

 which he had obtained at considerable 

 risk to life and limb by climbing some 

 precipitous crags around which they 

 were flying and hanging there by toes 

 and finger nails until an unwary insect 

 came within striking distance of his net. 

 For years no further specimens could be 

 obtained and finally, after making an 

 unsuccessful trip to Arizona in search of 

 the species our collector let it be known 

 throughout the district that he would 

 pay two dollars a specimen for all caught 

 and brought to him. Imagine both his 

 delight and consternation when a native 

 son arrived one fine morning with over 

 one hundred specimens of the long sought 

 species which he had captured with the 

 greatest ease congregated around a moist 

 spot on the ground in some remote 

 canyon. It is said the collector kept his 

 word and purchased the specimens, but 

 needless to say the offer no longer holds 

 good. 



When one considers that the number 

 of private individuals willing and able 

 to purchase specimens is very small and 

 that further there are seldom any repeat 

 orders after a small series of specimens 

 has once been obtained, it stands to 

 reason that as a commercial enterprise 

 butterfly collecting is less attractiv'e than 

 selling clocks. On the other hand as a 

 delightful means of spending one's spare 

 moments it cannot be too highly recom- 

 mended; the eye is trained to observe, 

 the body is invigorated in the chase, the 

 brain cleared of cobwebs by the fresh, 

 pure, country air, and finally there is 

 always the possibility of securing a 

 little extra pocket money by the disposal 

 of rare species which one has succeeded 

 in running to earth. 



