268 Till; CAXADIAX ]'.NT(».\I()1,()GIST. 



spirits, these last appear to have put their heads toi^ether one s])rin,<;- in secret 

 conclave. 



We ne\'er know what is in the lap ol the ,i;,'o(ls, and the day that toUowed 

 our Field Cluh's vSprini;' "revival" nieetini^', dawned much as other April da}s ; 

 It was onlv months later tliat I realized how hii; with history it had heen. vShortly 

 hefore hreakfast a deputation of six l)o\s liled into my room to know il I would 

 add to the annual pri/.e competition ot Flowers, h'olia.^e and Ferns, hy includinj^' 

 Insects, and admit them to the Cluh as hu,L;-hunters. 



After a little consideration 1 a,<;reed to this, and wrote a short article on 

 the comparative advantages of collecting lUUtertiies and Moths, or lieetles, which 

 appeared in the next issue of the School magazine. 1 m;i\- have eni])hasized the 

 ease of setting and preserving heetles as against the dilticulty of catching and 

 mounting l)utterdies. It was fate's iron}- if 1 did. At any rate ahout live pairs 

 of partners applied for memhership and three of these chose beetles for their 

 hobby. I had alread\' copies f)f Holland's two l)ooks on Jlutterflies and on 

 Moths, and idenlihcation was fairlv straightforward in the Lepidoptera ; though 

 1 am free to admit being gre;itlv relieved at the end of the summer to lind, in a 

 big Collection of sixteen cast's made 1)\' a pupil at (irosse lie, Michigan, th;il 

 uearh' all the specimens had been determined and n.amt'd by ihe collector and 

 his sister at home during the holida_\s. 



lUit ])eetles were a horse of another colour altogether, and 1 soon loutid 

 myself in a hopeless ([uandary over their names. IJoys came to m\- room uKjrn- 

 ing, noon, and night, with specimens to be idenlibed, and in a h-w weeks, out 

 of sheer desperation 1 began a colU'ction lor m\-sell, and st'cured a cojiv ol 

 Comstock's "Abanual tor the Stud\' ol Insects", be Conte and Horn's "Kev to 

 the (icncric Classihcation of North .\inerican Coleoj^tera", and Knoljcl's illus- 

 trated Booklet on "I'eetles of New l\ngl;ind". In ;i month 1 was in an advanced 

 stage of the disease, and have suflered an annual outbreak ol it e\-e'r since, just 

 as regular in its recurrence as ague or a dose of I'oison lv_\'. 



The most enthusiastic pair of Beetle collectors in the Club — apart from 

 the President and his runningmate, a dentist in the town — were a bov from .\1- 

 gonia Mills near the v^oo and his partner t rom Xew ( )rleans. ( )ne of these young 

 bug-hunters h.ad done some n-ading on the subject, and 1)\- a ])rocess of reasoning 

 not uncommon had Iranied an infallible test for all ])ossible beetle-])rol)lems ; 

 whenever the whooi) of a new capture wenl up, \\ hitne\ .Mc'juire could be 

 heard shouting breatblessK-, as he raced to the scene of action — "Mid \-on coimt 

 its legs?" 1 sup])ose his svUogism must ha\-e run like this: .\11 insects are six- 

 leggers ; l-Jeetles are six-leggers; liju/uI \\\ six-leggers are beetles. 1 am afraid I 

 may have hel])ed to clinch this 1 )ogl)err\- reasoning, for 1 ruled out two speci- 

 mens of sow-bugs and a Hat si)ider-scor])ion, taken b\- him \mder bark, from his 

 (u'st collection of beetles on the score ot an improper comi^lement of legs. C)f 

 course, the couming of legs has its uses, but also its limitations. It ol)\-iousl\- 

 wouldn't ha\e made an_\- difference to the Scotch gardener who .accused m\- 

 cousin once of stealing strawberries, and rei-ei\ed the suggestion that birds had 

 been the thieves with a wise bead-shake and the remark; "Ah! Mr. Harry, two- 



