and gorgeous colors are
represented in the best style of natural history art. We need only
mention the folio volume of Madam Merian of the last century, Harris's
Aurelian, the works of Cramer, Stoll, Drury, Huebner, Horsfield,
Doubleday and Westwood, and Hewitson, as comprising the most luxurious
and costly entomological works.

Near the close of the last century, John Abbot went from London and
spent several years in Georgia, rearing the larger and more showy
butterflies and moths, and painting them in the larva, chrysalis and
adult, or imago stage. These drawings he sent to London to be sold. Many
of them were collected by Sir James Edward Smith, and published under
the title of "The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of
Georgia, collected from the Observations of John Abbot, with the Plants
on which they Feed." (London, 1797. 2 vols., fol.) Besides these two
rare volumes there are sixteen folio volumes of drawings by Abbot in the
Library of the British Museum. This work is of especial interest to the
American student as it illustrates the early stages of many of our
butterflies and moths.

Indeed the study of insects possesses most of its interest when we
observe their habits and transformations. Caterpillars are always to be
found, and with a little practice are easy to raise; we would therefore
advise any one desirous of beginning the study of insects to take up the
butterflies and moths. They are perhaps easier to study than any other
group of insects, and are more ornamental in the cabinet. As a
scientific study we would recommend it to ladies as next to botany in
interest and in the ease in which specimens may be collected and
examined. The example of Madam Merian, and several ladies in this
country who have greatly aided science by their well filled cabinets,
and critical knowledge of the various species and their transformations,
is an earnest of what may be expected from their followers. Though the
moths are easy to study compared with the bees, flies, beetles and bugs,
and dragon flies, yet many questions of great interest in philosophical
entomology have been answered by our knowledge of their structure and
mode of growth. The great works of Herold on the evolution of a
caterpillar; of Lyonet on the anatomy of the Cossus; of Newport on that
of the Sphinx; and of Siebold on the parthenogenesis of insects, are
proofs that the moths have engaged the attention of some of the master
minds in s