4950 Insects. 



immediately seized in his mouth, brought back, and gently puffed or jetted into their 

 place again. This was constantly occurring, the other fish being continually on the 

 watch to devour these stragglers, and make a savoury morsel of these Lillipuliau truants. 

 Indeed, the greater number of the whole brood must have fallen a prey to their 

 yoracity, as it was only some three or four that reached a size to place them beyond 

 the power of these destroyers. As soon as the young fry could swim strongly the 

 parent fish gradually relinquished his duties, although a constant watch appeared to 

 be still quietly maintained on their motions as they swam about near the surface of the 

 water and among the floating leaves of the Vallisneria and Lemna. It is a curious 

 circumstance, that, very soon after these young sticklebacks were left unmolested by 

 their companions, both the parent fish disappeared, and I presume have died in some 

 hiding-place among the rock-work ; as though their allotted functions — namely, the 

 propagation of their species — having been completed, their period of existence must 

 terminate.* — Robert Waring ton ; Apothecaries Hall, September 11, 1855. 



The Gonepteryx Rhamni question. — It is impossible to resist the evidence which has 

 been brought to bear in your last number upon the natural history of our always-wel- 

 come brimstone butterfly. I will request, however, the privilege of a little space in your 

 journal to make one or two remarks more, in that spirit, I trust, in which all scientific 

 controversies should be conducted, and which has been so strongly inculcated in the 

 writings and example of such men as Ray, White, Kirby, &c. Natural History is 

 the business of few men's lives — it is the delightful recreation and study of many. 

 The contemplation of Nature, in her wondrous and varied aspects, — the study of those 

 beautiful Laws which the Creator, in his Infinite wisdom, has chosen to be the rule 

 and guide of auimated existence, — the patient and enduring research into that great 

 scheme upon which all Nature is founded and built up, — is the object and aim of the 

 naturalist's career ; and he follows out this path, not only in searching among books 

 the opinions and experience of others, but wherever the garden of the world is most 

 beautiful — in grassy, flowery fields — in the solitude of the forest — in the cold gray of 

 the mountain top — the student of Nature holds communion with those things for 

 which his yearning after truth has induced him to search. Such a pursuit as this 

 must never be sullied by recrimination among the pursuers, much less should we ever 

 appear irritable if others differ with us in opinion, or consider our own experience and 

 knowledge, however great, as an infallible and undeviating standard. If there is one 

 thing more than another which I have been impressed with by the late discussion, it 

 is the fact that there is a great deal of knowledge stored up in the minds of naturalists 

 of the present day, as securely as their own cabinets are protected from the investi- 

 gating propensities of Acari or Dermestes. One gentleman says that he has known 

 for thirty years that G. Rhamni was not double-brooded and that the imago hybernated ; 

 and yet during that time we have had published the works of Stephens, Westwood, 

 Jardine, Morris, &c, who have each recorded a different opinion. Linneus, in the 

 preface to his ' Fauna Sueeica,' quaintly remarks, " Longa denique experientia edocti 



* Printed in the 'Annals and Magazine of Natural History' for November, 1855, 

 and communicated by the author. 



