48 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



of precision in localities, and I was pleasantly surprised a short time ago 

 at receiving the following from a well-known naturalist, to whom I had 

 sent a list of mammalia, with their distribution given by counties : — •' I 

 hope you keep the exact localities as well as the counties. Most of the 

 counties in Colorado are so Targe that they include great variations in 

 altitude and physiographic conditions, and hence embrace widely different 

 faunai characteristics." With this quotation I close the subject, com- 

 mending it to all describers of Colorado and other insects, and drawing 

 their attention to the fact, that after all it expresses the views of all really 

 competent Vertebrate Zoologists, Conchologists, and Botanists, and hoping 

 that in the future they also will give proper attention to the citation of 

 locahties. 



One other matter may deserve a passing notice — that of giving credit 

 to collectors. I have nothing td complain of under this head myself, and 

 so can speak more freely. It seems to me, that a systematist who receives 

 specimens from a collector, who, we may assume, has gone to consider- 

 able trouble to collect them, and fails to credit him with the captures 

 when describing, does about as discourteous a thing as is possible in 

 Entomological literature. It would be very easy to show that from a 

 scientific point of view, it is always useful to know who collected the 

 specimens in question, and at the risk of being called egotistical, I do not 

 mind saying that I desire and expect that new species I may have collected 

 shall be duly credited to me in publication, and I am sure all other col- 

 lectors must feel the same. I do not wish to be personal, but very many 

 quite recent cases, in which no collector's name has been given, will occur 

 to everyone* — I need not enumerate them. Some authors seem to think 

 that if they have obtained specimens from professional collectors, they are 

 then, at anyrate, at liberty to omit the collector's name. It seems to me 

 that they are, if anything, under increased obligation to give it. Fancy 

 what an author would say if the editor of a magazine refused to publish 

 his name to an article because he had paid for it ! This matter of crediting 

 collectorst is, I think, a serious one, but collectors can easily put it right 

 if they will make a point of only sending specimens to those who will give 

 them credit. 



* In some of these cases, however, the authors are probably blameless. It is not 

 always possible to ascertain who was the collector. 



t One kind of " crediting," however, I do think unwise. If Tompkinson discovers 

 a new insect, I cannot myself see that that is any reason why the jioor creature should 

 ever after be burdened with the name " To)iipki)isoiu" ! ! 



