Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/403

Rh Club" publishes a monthly magazine, entirely devoted to Lepidoptera. The Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences has issued three handsome volumes chiefly devoted to studies on our moths. In Cambridge, where Harris lived and studied, a very useful journal—"Psy. che"—appears, while in London, Canada, Mr. Saunders edits "The Canadian Entomologist" in monthly parts. The various State entomologists publish yearly reports, and the Department of the Interior has published valuable monographs and papers relating to our moths in the publications of the geological survey. The great work which has been done in the United States in science has helped also the increase of information upon this comparatively small branch of natural history. I should have mentioned the ladies first, but it is not out of politeness that the conscientious historian records the services to science of Mrs. Eliza Bridgham, of New York; Mrs. C. H. Fernald, of Orono, Maine; and Miss Mary Murtfeldt, of St. Louis, Missouri. Mrs. Bridgham's extensive collection, commenced under the eye of Agassiz himself, is a model of useful collecting for scientific purposes. The species are not represented by single individuals, but the varieties of each species, and a sufficient number of duplicates to allow of the study of the structure and changes, are all carefully placed and labeled. Years of patient and careful toil have their reward in the most interesting local collection, from a scientific stand-point, I have yet seen.

In Europe our moths have been described and studied by two French scientists, MM. Boisduval and Guenie. In Germany, Professor Zeller and Dr. Speyer, together with Herr Moeschler and the lamented and talented Viennese lepidopterist Julius Lederer, have published interesting studies upon our North American fauna. In England, the late Mr. Walker accomplished less satisfactory work in the precincts of the British Museum, and is now succeeded by Mr. Arthur G. Butler, whose work merits all praise. But our best incentive to the study of our moths has been afforded by the example of Lord Walsingham. It is ten years ago since his lordship visited the United States, where, unlike many of his countrymen who come to hunt buffalo, he went West to hunt moths. Lord Walsingham visited California and Oregon, and camped out like a true hunter. While his companions took the rifle, he handled the entomological net, and to such good effect that science has been the gainer by hundreds of new species, and a much clearer general knowledge of the subject than before existed. The delicate operation of setting his tiny captures, Lord Walsingham accomplished successfully even on horseback, as the camp was shifted from place to place—quite a feat, when it is recollected that the tiny specimens, many not a quarter of an inch in expanse of wing, require a steady hand and the most favorable conditions to be successfully prepared for the cabinet. This memorable trip of Lord Walsingham's had the result of directing the attention of our collectors to the