THE NATURALISTS’ COMTANION. 
173 
The Bruce Collection. 
Upon invitation of Mr. David Rriice, 
Rrockport’s prominent naturalist, we 
recently made him a call, with the ob¬ 
ject in view of examining his immense 
collection. After listening to numerous 
tales of adventures which befell him 
while collecting in the West, we were 
shown his collection of North American 
moths, which, with but a few exceptions, 
is complete. He had the collection 
arranged in a handsome cabinet with 
glass doors. The cabinet contained in 
all about fifty drawers, in which the 
specimens were scientifically arranged. 
The bottom of each drawer contained 
a layer of cork, over which was spread 
a sheet of canvass the exact size of the 
interior of the drawer, and then the 
canvass given a thick coat of arsenic. 
This, Mr. Bruce informed us, is a posi¬ 
tive protection against the ravages of 
insects. Mr. Biuce has an excellent 
method lor arranging his specimens. 
He cut thiee pieces of red tape the ex¬ 
act length of the drawer, and then at¬ 
tached the ends of these at the front and 
back of the drawer, at equal distances 
apart, and one inch from the bottom of 
the same. 'I'hese were intended to di¬ 
vide the drawer into four rows or col¬ 
umns. After properly arranging the 
insects, he wrote the name of each vari¬ 
ety on slips of paper, which he pin¬ 
ned as a dividing mark between the dif¬ 
ferent species; on the back of each draw¬ 
er was then printed the name of the 
family to which the insects contained 
therein belonged. On the whole the col¬ 
lection looked magnificent and far 
beyond our most highest expectations. 
Mr. B. claims to have the largest private 
collection of lepidoptera in the United 
States, outside the city of New York, 
His collection of butterflies were nicely 
airanged in spool cabinets and looked 
quite as well as did the moths. In one 
corner of his room stood a mammoth 
breeding cage, the floor and sides of 
which were nearly covered with co¬ 
coons. We were also shown a large 
collection of mounted and unmounted 
bird skins, and a collection of the wild 
flowers of Western New York. Mr, 
Bruce has made a number of collecting 
trips in theWY'st. Last year he brought 
home, among other things, i,ooo bird 
skins. He left Brockport the forepart 
of this month (May) for another sojourn 
in the wild West, where he intends re¬ 
maining until about the first of Septem¬ 
ber. Among other places, he will visit 
Montana, Dakota and California, and 
no doubt he will return well laden with 
many rare and valuable specimens. 
Our Prizes. 
In order to increase the already large 
circulation of the Companion, we make 
the following offer: For the first sub¬ 
scription received by us after June 20 
we will present that subscriber with a 
nicely mounted bird ; for the second 
subscription, a fine bird skin ; for the 
third, one crow’s egg. The above will 
be forwarded post-paid. 
Mr. N. S. Goss, Topeka, Kansas, has 
kindly presented us with a copy of his 
^fBirds of Kansas,” a neat little book 
of 76 pages bound in cloth. The book 
contains a description of the nests and 
eggs of all birds known to breed in Kan¬ 
sas. Mr. G. has our thanks for the same. 
The book makes a valuable addition to 
our library. Our Kansas friends should 
procure a copy of the work, as it will 
aid them greatly in identifying eggs. 
