386 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



once more — throw away the burden of years and the cares of a 

 responsible position; drop the handle from your name, college 

 degree and the rest of it — forget it all. What you want is a little 

 zest for the day's captures and (as we shall be out for the day) a 

 sandwich or two in your pocket against the noontide hour. 



We have green lanes and fields right at our door, but as our 

 road will in any case be a long one, we shall condescend to get a 

 lift by boarding the morning train for Peterborough and riding as 

 far as Quay's Crossing, five miles up the track. I am giving myself 

 as well as you a treat, for this is a favourite walk, and I may not 

 have many more opportunities of taking it. But for all the hun- 

 dreds of times that 1 have trodden these paths and roamed the 

 woods and fields, I do not think I have ever come out entirely or 

 even primarily as a Coleopterist. The countryside all means far 

 more than beetles to me, so I must ask you to pardon the digres- 

 sions, which may be many. I hope they will not weary you. 



During the few minutes of our train ride, let us briefly review 

 the family of Chrysomelians. There are no less than 18,000 species 

 of these leaf-eating beetles known in the world; the vast majority 

 are tropical; North America can claim only about l-2oth of tiiis 

 number and Ontario about l-70th. But even Ontario's share,, 

 nearly 300 species, makes a long list, tne mere detailing of which 

 would take some pages, while anything like systematic treatment,, 

 with specific or even generic description would require a volume; 

 it would, besides, be more than tedious — it would be deadly dull. 

 Henshaw's check-list makes about as inspiring reading as the list 

 inspired of Walt Whitman's poems, and for the same reason — it's 

 a mere catalogue. There are purple patches, I grant you, and 

 not a few in LeConte and Horn or in Blatchlej^ as there arc in Pro- 

 fessor W'ickham's papers on the Chrysomelid?e of Ontario and 

 Quebec ("contained in volumes 28 and 29 of the Canadian Ento- 

 mologist, 1896-7). What are these purple patches of interest? — 

 these oases in a desert of dry description? At first sight they 

 seem of varying nature; sometimes a brilliant generalization or an 

 ingenious analogy; at others a quaint observation of habits or a 

 personal experience. But they all resolve themselves, at last, into 

 the personality of the WTiter. It is the personal element that 

 lends interest to a book or a paper on a technical subject; it is just 



