Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/903

 Popular Science Monthly

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��some of their native converts. Through their agency large numbers of species which formerly were of extreme rarity or even unknown to science have been obtained.

Another region which furnishes numer- ous interesting and highly prized but- terflies is the high mountain ranges of Central Asia, the Panier Range and the Thian Shan Mountains. Formerly species from these localities were scarcely known outside of Russian collections, but about eight years ago they began to ap- pear on the market in enormous quanti- ties. A Russian who had been com- missioned by the Hagenbecks of Ham- burg to secure live specimens of the snow leopard occupied his spare moments and those of his men in the early morning hours by picking the half-frozen butter- flies off the flower heads on which they had rested over night. To judge by the quantities he secured by this method the region must have been a veritable Eldorado for the butterfly collector. As a result of his activities several species which formerly commanded a price of from ten dollars to twenty dol- lars a specimen became an absolute drug on the market and were almost given away.

Two Hundred Dollars for a Glittering Butterfly

Of course there still remain some rare exotic butterflies for which possibly a wealthy collector might be willing to pay from one hundred dollars to two hundred dollars a specimen, but such species can almost be counted on one's ten fingers; and it is safe to say that within the next fifty years even the price of these will be considerably reduced, for as soon as col- lectors become acquainted with their habits and haunts and succeed in breeding them the supply will at once increase.

In our own country, where half the indigenous species of butterflies known to science have been described within the last sixty years, there is probably no species for which more than fi\e dollars a specimen would be paid, and the ma- jority of species could be purchased for less than one-tenth of this sum; the ' rarest ones are those frequenting the desert regions of the Southwest and the

��great barren lands of the Far North. The inaccessibility of these regions is again the cause of the rarity, for the very fact that they have remained unmolested in their haunts by man and his civiliza- tion is proof enough that at certain seasons they should be found in large numbers.

In this connection, and as an illustra- tion of the contention, the following story is told at the expense of one of the best known private collectors in the country. In the early eighties a collector brought back with him from Arizona two or three specimens of a new species of butterfly which he had obtained at considerable risk to life and limb by climbing some precipitous crags around which they were flying and hanging there by toes and finger nails until an unwary insect came within striking distance of his net. For years no further specimens could be obtained and finally, after making an unsuccessful trip to Arizona in search of the species our collector let it be known throughout the district that he would pay two dollars a specimen for all caught and brought to him. Imagine both his delight and consternation when a native son arrived one fine morning with over one hundred specimens of the long sought species which he had captured with the greatest ease congregated around a moist spot on the ground in some remote canyon. It is said the collector kept his word and purchased the specimens, but needless to say the offer no longer holds good.

When one considers that the number of private individuals willing and able to purchase specimens is very small and that further there are seldom any repeat orders after a small series of specimens has once been obtained, it stands to reason that as a commercial enterprise butterfly collecting is less attractiv'e than selling clocks. On the other hand as a delightful means of spending one's spare moments it cannot be too highly recom- mended; the eye is trained to observe, the body is invigorated in the chase, the brain cleared of cobwebs by the fresh, pure, country air, and finally there is always the possibility of securing a little extra pocket money by the disposal of rare species which one has succeeded in running to earth.

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