HINTS TO INSECT COLLECTORS. , 107 



after the Badger. Satisfied here, and wondering from the pain proceeding 

 from another quarter if my head was also adhering, my hand wandered 

 there next, and found it to be near about its proper place, and though not 

 shattered to pieces as I expected, I discovered that I had gained a pretty large 

 addition to the back part, in the form of a new bump, fully as big as a 

 Turkey's egg, and which I leave to some friendly phrenologist to name. 



Attempting to rise, and having once more gained my feet, I could not 

 help recalling to mind the words of Walter Kelpie, when his honour ex- 

 claimed on one occasion after a hard piece of work, "Sair back, and sair 

 beans, earn at mill o' Mangie's steans;" for although I had not been 

 turning mill-stones like Kelpie, still I felt a good deal sore, and not a little 

 confused; but I must not complain; and as all further entomologizing 

 prospect was at an end, I would look about for my box and hat, with the 

 view of returning for the night, but found it too dark to obtain the former, 

 which was met with fully thirty yards from where I fell. I found my 

 hat where I dropped it, and on attempting to put in on, was rather 

 sharply and painfully reminded of my new acquisition, and being a pretty 

 tight fit before, I had no other alternative but to walk home, which I did, 

 with hat in hand, and wondering what had become of my shaggy friend. 



But though my insect careering was thus brought to a close for that 

 evening, not so my badgereering; for that same night, my cranium, new 

 bump, and all, was so crammed full of them, that I would have shot 

 poor baderens (the cat) in my bed-room, where she chanced to be making 

 a little bit of a noise, (after a mouse perhaps,) for one; having risen in 

 my sleep and loaded one of the barrels of my gun for that very purpose, 

 and was just in the act of putting a cap on the nipple when I awoke. 



Banf, October, 1855. 



HINTS TO INSECT COLLECTORS. 



BY TAXUS. 



Having had personal experience in the difficulties and doubts which beset 

 the young Naturalist's path, I submit for his instruction, whether he be 

 a schoolboy or a working-man, a few simple hints for his guidance, as an 

 earnest of my wish for his progress in the delightful study of Insects. 

 When we consider the comparative abundance of Insects in every locality, 

 their wondrous ways and works, the simple apparatus required for captur- 

 ing them, and the small space required for storing specimens; the habits of 

 bodily activity, of accurate observation and thoughtful research, demanded 

 in collecting and arranging them; the reflex influence which the cultivation 

 of such habits during the leisure hours of school- tasks or daily toil must 

 exert on the formation of character, there is perhaps no department of 



