EDWARD’S TRAPS.
One of the objects which he had in view in making his “rounds” so frequently, was to examine the traps he had set, in order to catch the beetles, grubs, and insects, which he desired to collect. His traps were set with every imaginable organic material,—dead birds, rats, rabbits, or hedgehogs; dead fish, crabs, or seaweed. He placed them everywhere but on the public roads,—in fields and woods, both on the ground and hung on trees; in holes, in old dykes, in water, both fresh and stagnant. Some of these traps were visited daily, others once a week, whilst those set in water, marshy places, and in woods, were only visited once a month. He never passed any dead animal without first searching it carefully, and then removing it to some sheltered spot. He afterwards visited it from time to time. Fish stomachs, and the refuse of fishermen’s lines, proved a rich mine for marine objects. By these means he obtained many things which could not otherwise have been obtained; and he thus added many rare objects to his gradually growing collection.
COLLECTION OF INSECTS.
He was, however, doomed to many disappointments. One of these may be mentioned. Among his different collections was a large variety of insects. He had these pinned down in boxes in the usual manner. He numbered them separately. When he had obtained the proper names of the insects, his intention was to prepare a catalogue. He knew that there were sheets of figures sold for that and similar purposes, but he could not afford to buy them. He accordingly got a lot of old almanacs and multiplication tables, and cut out the numbers. It was a long and tedious process, but at length he completed it.
THE COLLECTION DESTROYED.
When the insects were fixed and numbered, Edward removed the cases into his garret preparatory to glazing them. He piled them, one upon the other, with their faces downwards, in order to keep out the dust. There were twenty boxes, containing in all 916 insects. After obtaining the necessary glass, he went into the garret to fetch out the cases. On lifting up the first case, he found that it had been entirely stripped of its contents. He was perfectly horrified. He tried the others. They were all empty! They contained nothing but the pins which had held the insects, with here and there a head, a leg, or a wing. A more complete work of destruction had never been witnessed. It had probably been perpetrated by rats or mice.
His wife, on seeing the empty cases, asked him what he was to do next. “Weal,” said he, “it’s an awfu’ disappointment, but I think the best thing will be to set to work and fill them up again.” To accumulate these 916 insects had cost him four years’ labour! And they had all been destroyed in a few days, perhaps in a single night!
It will be remembered that Audubon had once a similar disappointment. On leaving Henderson in Kentucky, where he then lived, he left his drawings, representing nearly a thousand inhabitants of the air, in the custody of a friend. On returning a few months later, and opening his box, he found that a pair of Norway rats had taken possession of the whole, and gnawed up the drawings into little bits of paper. Audubon did what Edward now determined to do. He went out into the woods with his gun, his notebook, and pencils, and in the course of about three years he again filled his portfolio.
Edward duly carried out his purpose. He went moth-hunting as before; he hunted the moors and the woods, the old buildings and the graveyards, until, in about four more years, he had made another collection of insects; although there were several specimens contained in the former collection, that he could never again meet with.
CASES FOR THE COLLECTION.