A FEW WORDS ABOUT MOTHS. 225 
The sun is now on the point of retiring for the night, al- 
though it is barely three o'clock, and the sight of the tall 
caches, like corneribs, which mark the position of the village 
for which we are bound, is not unwelcome ; for thirty miles 
on snowshoes is a good day's tramp, especially for the first 
time. In a few minutes we are seated in one of the com- 
fortable underground houses and enjoying the hospitality of 
the friendly Eskimo. Perhaps some summer's day, reader, 
we will try our luck together again. 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MOTHS. 
BY A. S. PACKARD, JR. 
Tn opportunity of copying a number of colored figures by 
Abbot, hitherto unpublished, leads me to say a few words 
regarding our native moths. The Lepidoptera, both butter- 
flies and moths (especially the former, from their constant 
presence by day) from their beauty and grace, have always 
been the favorites among amateur entomologists, and the 
rarest and most costly works have been published in which 
their forms and gorgeous colors are represented in the best 
style of natural history art. We need only mention the 
folio volume of Madam Merian of the last century, Harris's 
Aurelian, the works of Cramer, Stoll, Drury, Hübner, Hors- 
field, Doubleday and Westwood, and several others, as com- 
prising the most luxurious and costly entomological works. 
Near the close of the last century, John Abbot went from 
London and spent several years in Georgia, rearing the 
larger and more showy butterflies and moths, and painting 
them in the larva, chrysalis and adult, or imago, stage. 
These drawings he sent to London to be sold. Many of them 
were collected by Sir James Edward Smith, and published 
under the title of “The Natural History of the Rarer Lepi- 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. IV. 
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