490 
BIONOMIC NOTES 
obvious, and therefore to some persons uninteresting. But with 
what different eyes do we now look upon those same facts, filled as 
they are with new meaning! Surely present-day naturalists cannot 
do better than follow humbly in the footsteps of those “ old masters,” 
observe, record, and arrange facts, extract and dress the ore ready 
for some future metallurgist to smelt, so that some future smith may 
have the wherewithal to forge useful tools or works of art. 
Far more experienced observers than the writer have unfortunately 
lacked the time or the inclination to place their facts on record. 
Indeed, it is one of the saddest things in the history of science that 
so much knowledge has perished with the gleaners. 1 Again, even 
though the facts may have been recorded previously, it is surely well 
that they should be confirmed time after time before hasty inferences 
are drawn. Yet again, it is surely desirable to find out how far the 
facts extend, to what species, genera, families; to what degree they 
are developed; whether they vary in the two sexes, in the individual, 
the species, the genus; how they are distributed in space and time 
and season. Lastly, it is just possible that here and there a seemingly 
small fact, a residual phenomenon of real import, may have hitherto 
escaped observation, or at any rate may not have been recorded. 
It has been the authors idea to place together in some sort of 
order those of his observations which have from time to time appeared 
to him to be of real importance, with a view to focusing, as it were, 
all the scattered facts, in the hope of illuminating, even to a small 
degree, sundry holes and corners in the great mystery of evolution. 
§ 1. Scents of Butterflies. 
Doubtless from the earliest days that insects have been collected 
entomologists have from time to time noticed scented butterflies, and 
the records of such occurrences must be scattered here and there 
through entomological literature, but so far as I am aware Fritz 
Muller was the first to take up the study of the subject seriously. 
As early as 1876 he suggested that all the various brands, tufts of 
hairs, pouches, and the like, which are peculiar to the males of 
various butterflies, might be odoriferous organs, although up to that 
time he had himself actually detected scents in but few species. 2 
1 Col. C. T. Bingham’s diaries were in my mind when writing this ; he died the 
week after the original paper, on which this chapter is founded, was read. He was a 
keen observer, and the most genial of men. 
2 Jenaische Zeitschrift fur Naturwissenschaft , 1876, XI., p. 99. By the kind 
assistance of Mr. E. A. Elliott and Prof. Poulton I am enabled to give in an Appendix 
translations of this and other papers by Fritz Muller. 
