Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1893-10-20
IF YOU READ THIS
Perhaps You VIII 60 and Take a Look
for Yourself.

perhaps You VIII go and Take LOOK
for Yourself.
How lately have you been down into the
Natural History museum i'm the Brooks
Library building?
How much do you know about the spec
linens there?
How many different kinds of "bugs'
do YOU think there are which are native
to Brattleboro?
How long do you think it would take o
collect 1000 specimens of insects each diff
ferent from the other?
DO you suppose there is anybody in Brat
tleboro who would undertake to do this
work just from the love of it, and the
knowledge which it brings?
This isn't a catechsm, or a civil ser
vice reform examination paper The ques-
tions are only some that have been float
ing around in the head of the bug and
snake editor since he was decoyed down
into the museum by one of the library trus-
tees the other day
The object of the visit was to see the
chronological specimens which Mrs f. a.
Powers has collected, set up, and arranged
in their proper order during the present
season. They ill a row of glass cases ar
ranged along the south side of the museum
! There are 1905 different specimens in the
collection. Speaking in general way and
with no attempttous scientific terms, the
collection includes flies, grasshoppers, To-
Gusts katydids, crickets, dragon flies,
laced winged flies, May flies, gaddis flies,
centipedes, spiders, mites, moths and but
| terilies, bees, ichneumons, saw flies, ants
| and beetles.
Although living among them all their
| lives we venture to say that not one person
| in 20 has seen or individually noticed over
| a tenth of these specimens of insect life.
| They make an exceedingly pretty show.
classified in families, arranged in pairs,
and showing also, in many cases, the lar
va, chrysalis and egg stages of the insects
| 1t may increase the popular respect for
! this summers work if it is said, for in
stance, that there are shown here 81 diff
ferent kinds of dragon flies, 100 of grass
hoppers and locusts, 336 of moths and but
| teriles, and about $50 of beetles. Some
of the specimens are very rare, requiring
long search to find them; some are very
beautiful, as in case of several of the larger
moths and the colored beetles; and some
are curious, for instance, the treehopper,
which grows only on the bitter-sweet vine
and looks like a minute prairie chicken
glued TO the bark, while near by are the
Eggs Sdlely CONtTeu lot the nalculnS.
On shelf are specimens of another
kind, mostly of fish and reptiles, which
Mrs. Powers has gathered and prepared.
nearly all of them the present summer.
This collection includes good many of
the native fishes, and nearly all of the ma
tive snakes, among them a big Wantasti-
quet rattler, black snake, striped snakes,
adders, rnged racer, toads, frogs, lizards,
snails, slugs and clans.
Mrs. Powers work illustrates what may
be done by one who has an absorbing love
for any line of research into the life of ma
ture. She began it without any previous ed
ucational equipment, but the bent showed
itself when she was a child and used TO fill
her pockets with bugs. and snakes, and
other pets, which most children abhorred.
In mature life she has taken up the study
methodically, devoting her whole leisure
time to it, gaining her knowledge entirely
from standard books and her own research.
The standard entomologies are her insep-
arabic companions, and for the solution OF
obscure or knotty points she has had an
occasional letter of information or sugges-
ton from Prof. Morse, the assistant in en-
tomology in Wellesley college. AT the
present time in her breeding cage al
home she has many specimens in the egg
larva and chrysalis state, which she is care
fully nursing and watching against the
time when, betwiXt this and next June
they emerge into the full glory of their in
sect life.