4 88 



RECREATION 



tufts and branches embedded in the 

 earth ; every one of them partially eat- 

 en by one or other of scores of cater- 

 pillars in this queer stock farm. They 

 were there in every age, from those 

 which had just emerged from the egg- 

 shells to those casting their skins, spin- 



CHRYSALIS SUSPENDED ON A REED 



BY A THIN GIRDLE OF SILK OF 



ITS OWN WEAVING 



ning their cocoons; or burrowing into 

 the soil. 



Here, then, were the baby tigers, 

 death's heads, peacocks, and delicate 

 dusty millers, the perfection of which 

 in young Farreni's cabinet had made 

 my youthful mouth water with envy ; 

 and here for the first time I saw the 

 whole process by which the fray of 

 the net and the wasted labor was 

 avoided, and success achieved. I 

 learned a lesson which stood me in 

 good stead. 



After that, the toil and moil, and 

 scramble and chase, with the net, de- 

 stroying the beauty and lowering its 

 value in cash was not for me, but, in 

 lieu of it, an altogether wider, deeper 

 and more interesting study : the closer 

 observation of the trained scientist. I 

 had entered into a new world, and 

 widened my sphere of interest from the 

 finished product, backward to its incep- 

 tion, and through all the stages of its 

 manufacture. I was henceforth a 



STRING OF EGGS ON THE UN- 

 DER SURFACE OF A LEAF 



partner in the whole scheme of butter- 

 fly nature, instead of a mere collector. 

 The hunt for the caterpillar, or pre- 

 ferably for the eggs, or chrysalis, is not 

 so physically exhilarating as the chase 

 after the burnished beauties of the 

 bushes, but it calls into existence a 



minuteness of observation in the fields, 

 and an acumen to discover "sign," as 

 the learned in woodcraft call it, which 

 is in itself a liberal education. The 

 mimicry of nature to deceive observers 

 and thereby protect even the eggs, is 

 truly wonderful ; and the knowledge of 

 all the conditions necessary to insure 

 the hatching, feeding, hibernation and 

 final metamorphosis of the grub to the 

 butterfly or moth, demands a high order 

 of scientific habit. 



The first question every boy will na- 

 turally require answering is, "How 

 shall I stock my farm?" The reply to 

 it is threefold, for there are three 

 sources of supply, each leading to the 

 acquisition of what you want 

 at different stages of but- 

 terfly life. 



The first and most ob- 

 vious method is to acquire 

 the eggs from which the em- 

 bryo caterpillar will hatch. 

 To find these it will not be 

 so necessary to watch the 

 errant butterfly, which lays 

 the eggs (that would be very 

 difficult), as it is to watch 

 the caterpillars feeding ; 

 when you have located them 

 you have the key to the egg 

 basket, for it is one of 

 the most wonderful provisions of na- 

 ture that the butterfly lays her eggs, 

 always, on, or in the proximity of, the 

 leaves upon which she, as a caterpillar 

 fed, and which she knows her progeny, 

 in their turn, will need for their suste- 

 nance. Some eggs will be detected on 

 the undersides of the leaves, or ranged 

 in clusters on the twigs ; some in the 

 crevices of the bark, and some buried 

 in the stalks, none of them are conspic- 

 uous, but the most of them are not 

 difficult to find, after a little practical 

 experience. 



The second source is to gather in the 

 chrysalides, into which the caterpillar 

 transforms, in the crevices of tree- 

 bark or from the bare tree branches, or 

 reeds, after the leaves are all off, and 

 they can be the more easily detected, 



CLUSTER 

 OF EGGS 

 ON A 

 TWIG 



