The owners of many a name great in the arts have been enthusiastic collectors of butterflies. Our distinguished countryman, Thomas Stothard, was one of their devotees, and the following anecdote, extracted from his published life, shows how he was led to make them his special study:-- "He was beginning to paint the figure of a reclining sylph, when a difficulty arose in his own mind how best to represent such a being of fancy. A friend who was present said, 'Give the sylph a butterfly's wing, and then you have it.' 'That I will,' exclaimed Stothard; 'and to be correct I will paint the wing {38} from the butterfly itself.' He sallied forth, extended his walk to the fields, some miles distant, and caught one of those beautiful insects; it was of the species called the Peacock. Our artist brought it carefully home, and commenced sketching it, but not in the painting room; and leaving it on the table, a servant swept the pretty little creature away, before its portrait was finished. On learning his loss, away went Stothard once more to the fields to seek another butterfly. But at this time one of the tortoise-shell tribe crossed his path, and was secured. He was astonished at the combination of colour that presented itself to him in this small but exquisite work of the Creator, and from that moment determined to enter on a new and difficult field--the study of the insect department of Natural History. He became a hunter of butterflies. The more he caught, the greater beauty did he trace in their infinite variety, and he would often say that no one knew what he owed to these insects--they had taught him the finest combinations in that difficult branch of art--colouring." The above doubtless has its parallel in the experience of many artistic minds, whose very nature it is to appreciate to the full the perfections set forth in a butterfly, admiring-- "The velvet nap which on his wings doth lie, The silken down with which his back is dight, His broad outstretched horns, his airy thigh, His glorious colours and his glistening eye." SPENSER. * * * * * {39} CHAPTER IV. BUTTERFLIES IN THE CABINET--HOW TO CATCH THEM--APPARATUS--GOING OUT--WEATHER--LOCALITIES--LOCAL BUTTERFLIES--INCOGNITOS--FIELD WORK--FAVOURITE STATIONS--BEWARE OF THE BRAMBLE. The mention of butterflies "in the cabinet" leads at once to the question, how to get them there; or, in other words, HOW TO CATCH A BUTTERFLY. This is a question often less difficult to answer in words than in action, for many of our butterflies are gifted not only with strong prejudices against the inside of a net, but with very strong powers of escaping from that unpleasant situation. Still, by aid of proper apparatus, a sure eye and hand, and often, of a good pair of legs, there is no butterfly, however fleet and wary, that we may not feel ourselves a tolerable match for.