182 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



without limit — that there is work enough for thousands of investigators 

 for ahiiost innumerable generations to come. And when we couple with 

 Entomology other kindred sciences, such as Botany, Geology and Physical 

 Geography, which are so closely allied that no student can safely overlook 

 them, we begin almost to be overwhelmed with the vast extent of this 

 iield of knowledge that we seek to exj^lore. So vast, indeed, is the field 

 that no one now ventures to survey the whole of it, except in a very 

 general way ; each explorer finds himself compelled — if he would do 

 any effective work— to confine his labour to some one or two of its 

 sections or subsections. By this division of labour, all departments of 

 the Science will by degrees be taken up, and much that is now a ' terra 

 incogJiita ' will become familiar to the patient explorer. 



In our own country — within the bounds of this great Dominion — there 

 is need of many more students and explorers. Even in this Province of 

 Ontario, the headquarters of our Society, where more has been done than 

 in any other part of Canada, there is yet room for a great increase to our 

 band of collectors and investigators. How incomplete, for instance, is 

 even yet our list of Diurnal Lepidoptera, and how many pages are still 

 blank in the life history of some of our commonest butterflies ? Our able 

 Editor, my excellent friend, Mr. Saunders, has done much to fill up these 

 l^lank pages, and his work is everywhere recognized as thorough and 

 authoritative ; but yet there remains much more to be done, that we hope 

 our members will before long accomplish. If we turn to Crepuscular 

 and Nocturnal Lepidoptera, we must feel almost appalled at the extent of 

 our ignorance. For those who have the time and the ability, I can think 

 of no more interesting or attractive field of enquiry — none that will sooner 

 or better repay the pains-taking student, whether he looks for fame or 

 pleasure, whether he sighs for fresh fields to conquer, or desires to set his 

 foot where man has not trodden before. In a department where so much 

 remains to be done, we all, I am sure, offer a most cordial welcome to 

 one who has recently cast in his lot among us, and has traversed the broad 

 Atlantic in order to study the Noctuidoe of this country. I allude to Mr. 

 George Norman, of St. Catharines, late of Forres, in Scotland. 



In another order of insects, the Coleoptera, much no doubt has been 

 accomplished. Through the pains-taking labours of a Billings and a 

 Pettit, not to mention other good workers, and by the aid of the great 

 authorities in the neighbouring States, Dr. Leconte and Dr. Horn in par- 

 ticular, we have been able to increase our list of Canadian beetles from a 

 few hundreds at the birth of the Society, to more than as many thousands 



