Public-domain ebook
Butterflies and Moths (British)
Language: en1,225 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Animal·Animals-Wild-Insects·Science - Biology
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #34131.
About this book
This work is a practical handbook for anyone who wishes to deepen his knowledge of British Lepidoptera, the butterflies and moths of Great Britain. The author opens by explaining that the volume follows a successful “Out‑door World” series and is intended for readers who have already tasted the pleasure of field natural history. After a brief overview of the order’s general characteristics, the book promises a complete description of every British butterfly, a selection of the more common larger moths, and an introduction to the micro‑lepidoptera. It is organized into four parts, covering anatomy and life‑history, field techniques for catching and rearing, detailed species accounts, and extensive illustrations, including twelve coloured plates and numerous woodcuts, designed to aid identification and collection.
Written in the earnest, didactic style of late‑Victorian naturalists, the text combines meticulous observation with a conversational tone that assumes the reader is an eager amateur naturalist rather than a professional entomologist. The language is formal yet accessible, and the abundance of diagrams, plates, and step‑by‑step instructions makes the book especially useful for hobbyists, school teachers, and garden‑owners who want to learn how to locate, capture, preserve, and study the insects that flutter over British fields and woods.
The opening · free to read
The favourable reception with which the 'Out-door World' has been greeted has encouraged the publishers to issue a series of volumes dealing in fuller detail with the various branches of Natural History treated of in that work. Necessarily each subject was only briefly touched upon, but the study is of so enticing a character that 'appetite grows by feeding,' and the students of the 'Out-door World,' having tasted the sweetness of companionship with Nature, will not rest satisfied with the help afforded by that handbook. Each one will want to go deeper into that particular department which most appeals to his own inclinations.
The present volume is written expressly for those who desire to extend their knowledge of the British Lepidoptera, or, to use the more popular names, 'Butterflies and Moths.'
The general characteristics of this interesting order of insects are described somewhat fully, but, of course, it would be impossible to give an individual account of all the British Lepidoptera in a work of this size, so a selection has been made such as will satisfy the requirements of the great majority of those who intend to take up this particular branch of entomology. The number of British Butterflies, however, is so limited that a place has been found for a figure and a description of every species; and, of the larger moths, many of the common and typical kinds have been included. An introduction to the study of the Micro-lepidoptera has also been added.
No trouble has been spared to render this work thoroughly practical. In addition to the verbal descriptions of so many species, twelve coloured plates and a large number of woodcuts have been specially prepared to help the student in his work. It is believed that the extreme care with which these have been produced will render them of the greatest assistance to the collector in the recognition of his specimens.
But he has not only to recognise his specimens--he must first catch them; and here full directions have been given to insure success in this part of his work, as well as in the management, preservation, and arrangement of his captures.
The Author hopes that this volume may be the means of adding many happy hours--hours of the purest enjoyment--to the lives of those whom he has succeeded in luring into the fields and lanes and woods of the Out-door World.
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