CLASSIFICATION. 423 



observed, or the rank it holds in any particular system. 

 These, however, it may be interesting for the observer to 

 ascertain afterwards, in order that he may compare his own 

 observations with those of other naturalists. At the com- 

 mencement, therefore, of such investigations, it may be 

 useful, when the name of an insect is unknown, to mark it 

 with some number by way of distinction, till the name (if 

 it have one) given it by systematists be discovered. In 

 our own researches we have found these numeral names — 

 1, 2, 3, or A, B, C, — of considerable use, when we could 

 not readily trace the names we wanted amongst the almost 

 interminable synonymes to be met with in systems of 

 classification. 



If we should be asked, what is the best place to find 

 insects, our answer must be, everywhere — woods, fields, 

 lanes, hedgerows, gardens : wherever a flower blooms or a 

 green leaf grows, some of the insects which feed on living- 

 vegetables will be sure to be found, as will those which 

 feed on decaying leaves and decaying wood be met with 

 wherever these abound. In the waters, again, both running 

 and stagnant, from the rill to the river, and from the broad 

 lake to the little pool formed in a cow's footstep, aquatic 

 insects of numerous varieties may be seen. Winged insects, 

 of -countless species, may be seen in the air during their 

 excursions in search of food, or for the purposes of pairing 

 or depositing their eggs, and the observation of these forms 

 a most interesting branch of the study. The species which 

 prey on animal substances, either living or dead, often pos- 

 sess such habits as may deter some students from attend- 

 ing to them, and yet they fulfil most important purposes 

 in nature, and have furnished the distinguished naturalists, 

 Eedi, Swammerdam, Leeuwenhoeck, Reaumur, and De 

 Geer, with highly-interesting subjects of i-esearch. The 

 history of many of these animals becomes highly interest- 

 ing, from its relation to our domestic comfort. The house- 

 fly, for instance, is said to breed amongst horse-dung ; but 

 that its maggots find food in other substances not hitherto 

 ascertained, is rendered probable by the enormous numbers 

 which are sometimes seen at a distance from places where 



