So I lost my first Cecropia, and from that day until a woman
grown and much of this material secured, in all my field work
among the birds, flowers, and animals, I never had seen another.
They had taunted me in museums, and been my envy in private
collections, but find one, I could not. When in my field work
among the birds, so many moths of other families almost had thrust
themselves upon me that I began a collection of reproductions of
them, I found little difficulty in securing almost anything else.
I could picture Sphinx Moths in any position I chose, and Lunas
seemed eager to pose for me. A friend carried to me a beautiful
tan-coloured Polyphemus with transparent moons like isinglass
set in its wings of softest velvet down, and as for butterflies,
it was not necessary to go afield for them; they came to me.
I could pick a Papilio Aj ax, that some of my friends were years
in securing, from the pinks in my garden. A pair of Antiopas spent
a night, and waited to be pictured in the morning, among the leaves
of my passion vine.
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