1902 Entomology in Siunmer 205 



thorough, must have at least three attributes abnormally 

 developed. There are two distinct classes of naturalists: 

 those who gather material and observe natural phenomena 

 in their wild condition, and those who classify, examine, 

 and perpetuate records in the study. Neither is of lasting 

 value without the other; the collector — the "mere" col- 

 lector he has often been unjustly termed — would work to 

 little purpose were his captures to lie perdu, unnamed, in 

 a chaotic mass in his cabinets and upon his shelves, while 

 the student would have nothing to study unless it were 

 brought in by the collector. In both these classes, of 

 which few men possess sufficient leisure to become members 

 at once, close and trained observation is of paramount 

 importance : the former must not assume, because he sees 

 a Chrysis emerge from a boring in a post, that this beauti- 

 ful insect has drilled the hole or constructed the nest at the 

 end of it ; nor is the latter entitled to lay down the law, 

 because a beetle possesses a stridulating file on its elytra or 

 upon its abdomen, that it emits sound therefrom, unless 

 his brother of the field has tested his theory upon the 

 living insect. Thus observation without accuracy is nothing 

 worth. But the surest evidence of the naturalist is his 

 patience and steadfastness. I have infused a dozen men 

 with enthusiasm in entomology ; they have worked like 

 Trojans for a time, a few months or even a year, but 

 gradually the patience died, new interests grew up, and 

 ere long they forsook the net and pin for pastures new. 



At no time will this steadfastness be more trying to 

 maintain than in the lengthened days of mature summer. 

 You have collected assiduously all the spring, perhaps from 

 the moss and bark days of late winter ; you have taken 

 an apparently countless variety of insect-forms, and you 

 begin to wonder how many more there cait be and to feel 

 "love's sad satiety." Moreover, it will be found that there 

 are not so many insects abroad as was the case in spring, 

 and that a large number of those now met with have already 

 been taken earlier in the year. In July a great many species 

 are passing through the larval condition, and in August 

 comparatively few beetles put in an appearance ; where in 

 June they fell in showers to the magic touch of the beating- 



