218 Mr. Otto Meskt's Collection of Lepidoptera. 



for the incorporation of the several species in their proper 

 places, involving, perhaps, the shifting of the entire con- 

 tents of a series of cases or drawers. 



I cannot forbear from earnestly commending the zeal 

 displayed by Mr. Meske in the prosecution of his favor- 

 ite pursuit. It bears with it its own reward, in the keen 

 enjoyment which it affords him. On one occasion, when 

 we were passing a day together in that almost unequalled 

 entomological collecting ground, Center Station, midway 

 between Albany and Schenectady, on the pine barrens, 

 where an abundant insect fauna would not be looked for, 

 and had met with eminent success in the capture of an 

 unusual number of rare, beautiful and new forms, culmi- 

 nating in my friend's netting a perfect specimen of Sesia 

 gracilis, he turned to me, trembling with emotion and his 

 face glowing with enthusiasm, exclaiming : " What is mak- 

 ing money compared with this !" For several years he has 

 annually devoted many days to field collecting and observa- 

 tions — the best service that a naturalist can render to 

 science — at quite a sacrifice of the pecuniary gain which 

 the same time devoted to his profession would have ensured 

 him. In return, he is in possession of a collection, the 

 acquisition of which has been, throughout, a labor of love ; 

 which, in the many rare and typical species contained in it, 

 is proving of special value to science ; which several of our 

 eminent entomologists have made special journeys to Albany 

 to examine, and from which valuable contributions, au- 

 thentically named, have been made to various collections 

 in this country and in Europe. To the material furnished 

 by him to Dr. Speyer, we owe the paper (the first of a series), 

 for some years in preparation, now passing through the 

 press in Germany and 1 anxiously awaited by us here " On 

 the Allied Forms of Lepidoptera of Europe and America." 



The collection is particularly rich in several of the more 

 interesting families to which special attention has been 

 given. It is quite full in the Sphingidae, that very attractive 



