Abstract

Butterflies

This article focuses on the book "Butterflies: Their Structure, Changes, and Life-Histories, With Special Reference to American Forms," by Samuel H. Scudder. It may be that the scientific standing of the author leads to expect too much from his book. It certainly contains a great deal of important matter, much that is the outcome of his own observation, and more perhaps drawn from other observers. Yet the general effect is disappointing. Scientists will find the manual unsatisfactory in that it contains very little that is new, that the applications of the doctrines of descent are not made sufficiently clear, and that many of the author's peculiar ideas as to nomenclature, classification, etc., generally thought unworthy of adoption, are here repeated.