540 Natural History in the English Counties : — 



have expected to find in the Canterbury museum, to say the 

 least, a good collection of British insects. In this respect, 

 however, I was much disappointed. In the first place, the 

 British and foreign insects are deposited in one and the same 

 case ; a practice highly objectionable. Next, the collection, 

 though it contains some rarities, is by no means extensive, 

 being deficient even in some of the local species of the county ; 

 nor are the specimens, in very many instances, well preserved. 

 But what I have most to complain of is, that the very worst 

 specimens in the whole collection are those of the commonest 

 insects ; specimens ill set, or rather not set at all, and such as 

 could not have been fair and good when first deposited in the 

 cabinet. It is perfectly allowable, I am aw^are, to admit worn 

 and mutilated specimens of rare insects; because no better, 

 perhaps, can be procured ; and a bad specimen is better than 

 none ; but to illustrate the commonest species by examples 

 miserably preserved in the first instance, is as intolerable as 

 indifferent poetry, which, we are told, 



" Non homines, non Di, non concessere columnae." 

 " Neither gods, nor men, nor posts, can bear." 



Perhaps the collection is yet in its infancy, and therefore 

 ought not to be too severely criticised ; and perhaps there may 

 be no gentleman connected with the institution, whose attention 

 is particularly turned to entomology. If this be so, I would 

 strongly recommend the directors at once to discard full half 

 of the British Lepidoptera ; and either to employ some com- 

 petent collector one day in each of the months of May, June, 

 July, and August, of the ensuing summer, for the purpose of 

 procuring fresh specimens in the room of those rejected ; or 

 else (which might be the readiest plan) to expend a few shil- 

 lings with Mr. Le Plastrier of Dover, who preserves his 

 insects in the most perfect condition, and disposes of them at 

 very moderate prices, and who, in a case like the present, from 

 his love for the study, I have no doubt would be ready to deal 

 on the most hberal terms. Perhaps I shall be told, in answer, 

 that many of the insects have been presented to the museum, and 

 therefore it would be ungracious to discard them. But could 

 any gentleman, I would ask, reasonably take offence at finding 

 far better specimens of particular insects substituted in the 

 room of his own less perfect contributions? If so, such 

 contributions must be considered only in the light of en- 

 cumbrances ; just like shabby articles of perishable furniture 

 injudiciously left as heir-looms in a family, which the possessor, 

 of course, wishes might belong to any one rather than himself. 

 I observed, also, that, in some instances, the insects were not 

 distinguished by their names ; and this, too, in cases where 



