ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 



PHILADELPHIA, PA., MARCH, 1914. 



On Writing History. 



History is very interesting if true, and it becomes equally 

 ridiculous if untrue. History to be respected should be accom- 

 panied by references to sources of information. 



In the Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society, 

 Volume 8, page 54, is an account of what happened to the 

 Say collection. According to this account it was sent (some 

 time) from New Harmony (Indiana) and was stored unopened 

 in Philadelphia and forgotten. How long it was forgotten 

 is not stated. "Nearly twenty years later it was resurrected 

 and sent to Thaddeus W. Harris, State Entomologist of Mas- 

 sachusetts, and a very notable man." 



In the sarnie journal, Volume 8, page in, is a letter from 

 Charles Christoph Andrew Zimmerman to Dr. W. T. Harris. 

 This letter is dated Columbia, S. C., June Qth, 1841. In it he 

 pays his respects to Philadelphia, and refers to the Say col- 

 lection, then in the hands of Dr. Harris. 



Thomas Say died October loth, 1834. Making no allow- 

 ance for the time his collection remained in New Harmony 

 and the time it was forgotten in Philadelphia and the time it 

 took to send it to Massachusetts, "nearly twenty years" from 

 the date of his death only, would make nearly the date 1854. 



H. S. 



An Ant Story. 



Near Lawton, Okla., according to a story said to be fact, the sports- 

 men of that town have established a shooting range. At the end of 

 the range a great many mound-building ants had established colonies, 

 and naturally some of the spent shot dropped in that vicinity. It was 

 discovered that the ants in gathering the round granite pebbles for 

 their mounds had also carried a great quantity of shot and mingled it 

 with the tiny particles of stone. More than fifty pounds of shot were 

 taken from the mounds investigated. Bulletin, New York Zoological 

 Society, Sept., 1913. 



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