144 New Collection of Insects. [cHAP. vim. 
And they had all been destroyed in a few days, perhaps in 
a single night! 
It will be remembered that Audubon had once a simi- 
lar disappointment. On leaving Henderson, in Kentucky, 
where he then lived, he left his drawings, representing near- 
ly a thousand inhabitants of the air, in the custody of a 
friend. On returning a few months later, and opening his 
box, he found that a pair of Norway rats had taken pos- 
session of the whole, and gnawed up the drawings into lit- 
tle bits of paper. Audubon did what Edward now deter- 
mined to do. He went out into the woods with his gun, 
his note-book, and pencils, and in the course of about three 
years he again filled his port-folio. _ 
Edward duly carried out his purpose. He went moth- 
hunting as before; he hunted the moors and the woods, 
the old buildings and the grave-yards, until, in about four 
more years, he had made another collection of insects; al- 
though there were several specimens contained in the for- 
mer collection that he could never again meet with. 
Edward had now been observing and collecting for about 
eight years. His accumulations of natural objects had there- 
fore become considerable. By the year 1845, he had pre- 
served nearly two thousand specimens of living creatures 
found in the neighborhood of Banff. About half the num- 
ber consisted of quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, fishes, crustacea, 
star-fish, zoophytes, corals, sponges, and other objects. He 
had also collected an immense number of plants. Some of 
the specimens were in bottles, but the greater number were 
in cases with glass fronts. He could not afford to have the 
cases made by a joiner; so he made the whole of them 
himself, with the aid of his shoe-maker’s knife, a saw, and a 
hammer. 
In order to make the smaller cases, he bought boxes from 
the merchants; and in breaking them up, he usually got as 
many nails as would serve to nail the new cases together. 
To make the larger cases, he bought wood from the car- 
