LETTER TO THE EDITOK. 2.13 



aud takes up Mr. Stainton's volume. He finds tlie introduetoi'y chapters 

 excellently written, and proceeds. He turns over to page 26. His eye sees 

 the alarming words Anthrocera Minos, Petasia nuheculosa, Ypsolophus Juni- 

 perellus, and many similar, which the student-mechanic may well designate 

 "jaw-breaking words." They are as incomprehensible to him as the hiero- 

 glyphics on an Egyptian monument, or the cuneiform characters on the 

 disinterred tablets of Nineveh. He quietly shuts the book, and lays it down 

 in despair ; for before he can learn the mysteries it contains, he must learn 

 the Latin language. Wliy fold up the name of an insect in a chrysalis case 

 of Latin ? Why not adopt the excellent plan the Eev. F. O. Morris has 

 adopted, in his " British Butterflies," of making the English the leading 

 term, which all may understand, but, in order to avoid confusion of species, 

 appending also the Latin name to an individual, to enable it at once to be 

 recognized by the man of science. Since I purchased his volume, I have 

 been able to name every butterfly which I have seen in my district, although 

 possessing little knowledge of the subject. With hundreds of persons the 

 pursuit of Entomology resolves itself into this ; they want to know sufiicient 

 of it to give a zest to their walks. They ramble in the woods, perhaps; they 

 notice a pretty dark butterfly, with spots like eyes on the wings; they admire 

 it ; would like to know something of its history. They turn to Morris and 

 the enigma is solved. It proves to be, in plain English, The Wood Argus ; 

 and not, as in some works it would do, in ugly Latin, HipparcMa ^geria. 

 The rambler's want is supplied; and having ascertained its name, its habitat, 

 and something of its habits, he has formed a basis, as it were, to work upon, 

 and probably in his turn becomes a person who endeavours to ascertain by 

 personal observation still further of its history. Thus are the secrets of 

 nature gradually unfolded. If no plate of the insect, or English name and 

 description had met the rambler's eye, but the dry words HipparcJiia ^geria, 

 he would not only have remained in ignorance of the popular name of the 

 insect, but even natural history might eventually have lost in him an ardent 

 student. — John Joseph Briggs. 



King's Newton, Swarkeston, Derby. 



A Mallard (Anas boschas) was shot, a day or two ago, on Bassenthwaite 

 Lake, in a bay called Bownass, near to Bassenthwaite church. The length 

 of the bird is two feet thi-ee inches. Mr. Yarrell, in his history of the Wild 

 Duck, mentions the whole length, twenty-four inches. This specimen, 



