How frequently the collector has had introduced to his notice, by some non-entomological friend, or worthy cottage dame, a "fine butterfly," only to find that the supposed prize, usually imprisoned under an inverted tumbler, was just an ordinary specimen of the gaudy, but common, Garden Tiger. Few persons living in the country, and at all interested in the natural objects around them, will fail to recognize the portraits on Plate 82; other figures, however, on Plate 84 will appear strange, and yet they only portray some of the many forms which the moths assume. Possibly it would be true to say that no two specimens could be found that were exactly identical in tint and marking. Even the markings of any one example are frequently not precisely alike on corresponding wings. Normally the fore wings are white or creamy-white with dark brown markings, and the hind wings are red with deep blue centred black spots, often ringed with yellow. The dark markings of the fore wings are most inconstant in size and in form; in some cases they are so greatly enlarged that these wings might be described as dark brown with narrow, irregular whitish markings (Plate 84, Fig. 1). On the other hand, but less frequently perhaps, the dark markings are narrowed, shortened, and reduced in number, until only spots remain on a white or creamy ground (Plate 84, Fig. 2). The red colour of the hind wings is sometimes crimson in tone, or it assumes an orange tint, and less often it gives place to yellow; the central spots often unite and form a band, or some, occasionally all, disappear; the marginal spots sometimes run into a band. [Illustration] Pl. 82. CLOUDED BUFF MOTH, 1 _male_; 2 _female_. GARDEN TIGER MOTH, 3 _male_; 4 _female_. [Illustration] Pl. 83. CLOUDED BUFF MOTH. _Eggs natural size and enlarged; caterpillar._ {161} Besides aberration, such as that referred to above, curious abnormal specimens occur in the breeding cage from time to time, but these are often more or less deformed. It is, perhaps, remarkable, that so few "good things" in the way of varieties are obtained from collected caterpillars, even when these are reared by hundreds. Possibly, if the breeder started operations with a stock of eggs from unusually pale or unusually dark females, and then reserving only the lightest or the darkest, as required, of each generation to continue the experiment, some interesting light or dark "strains" might result in course of time. The objection to this is that before the desired result was obtained the stock might be weakened by "inbreeding," and the moths consequently deformed. If, however, the same line of experiment were conducted by several people, each living in a different part of the country, and with stock selected from the products of his own locality, eggs, caterpillars, or chrysalids might be exchanged, say, after the second year, and in this way the effect of "inbreeding" would be minimized.