The Butterfly Book: A Popular Guide to a Knowledge of the Butterflies of North AmericaHolland, W. J. (William Jacob)
Science
The Butterfly Book: A Popular Guide to a Knowledge of the Butterflies of North America
Holland, W. J. (William Jacob)
Butterflies -- North America
While the two great works which have been mentioned have illustrated to
the highest degree not only the learning of their authors, but the vast
advances which have been made in the art of illustration within the last
thirty years, they do not stand alone as representing the activity of
students in this field. A number of smaller, but useful, works have
appeared from time to time. Among these must be mentioned "The
Butterflies of the Eastern United States," by Professor G.H. French.
This book, which contains four hundred and two pages and ninety-three
figures in the text, was published in Philadelphia in 1886. It is an
admirable little work, with the help of which the student may learn much
in relation to the subject; but it greatly lacks in illustration,
without which all such publications are not attractive or thoroughly
useful to the student. In the same year appeared "The Butterflies of New
England," by C.J. Maynard, a quarto containing seventy-two pages of text
and eight colored plates, the latter very poor. In 1878 Herman Strecker
of Reading, Pennsylvania, published a book entitled "Butterflies and
Moths of North America," which is further entitled "A Complete
Synonymical Catalogue." It gives only the synonymy of some four hundred
and seventy species of butterflies, and has never been continued by the
author, as was apparently his intention. It makes no mention of the
moths, except upon the title-page. For the scientific student it has
much value, but is of no value to a beginner. The same author published
in parts a work illustrated by fifteen colored plates, entitled
"Lepidoptera-Rhopaloceres and Heteroceres--Indigenous and Exotic," which
came out from 1872 to 1879, and contains recognizable figures of many
North American species.
In 1891 there appeared in Boston, from the pen of C.J. Maynard, a work
entitled "A Manual of North American Butterflies." This is illustrated
by ten very poorly executed plates and a number of equally poorly
executed cuts in the text. The work is unfortunately characterized by a
number of serious defects which make its use difficult and
unsatisfactory for the correct determination of species and their
classification.
In 1893 Dr. Scudder published two books, both of them useful, though
brief, one of them entitled "The Life of a Butterfly," the other, "A
Brief Guide to the Commoner Butterflies of the Northern United States
and Canada." Both of these books were published in New York by Messrs.
Henry Holt & Co., and contain valuable information in relation to the
subject, being to a certain extent an advance upon another work
published in 1881 by the same author and firm, entitled "Butterflies."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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