1877.1 279 



Collections of British Lepidoptera. — In one of the fables, ascribed with more or 

 less probability to JSsop, is the well-known story of the town and country mouse ; 

 after describing the peaceful poverty in which the counti-y mouse lived, it tells of a 

 visit which he paid to his town friend, how astonished he was at the display of wealth 

 and luxury, and of the delicacies, to procure which all the shops of the city had 

 been rausaeked ; but he soon found these things did not bring happiness or content, 

 and retui-ned to his rocks and woods, preferring to eat his frugal meals in peace rather 

 than share the daintiest feast where fear and care were in waiting. 



It was with some such feeling that I lately returned fi'om a visit to London, 

 during which I was most kindly allowed to inspect various private collections of 

 Lepidoptera, and I was surprised to find that many insects which I have been 

 accustomed to consider British, more by tradition or chance immigration than as 

 truly native, existed in considerable numbers in the metropolitan collections ; 

 amongst which I will mention, Pieris Daplidice, Arffi/nnis Lathonia and Niohe, Sesia 

 sphegiformis and vespiformis, Deilephila nerii and euphorbice, Notodonta bicolor, 

 Qluphisia crenata, Ophiodes lunaris and Acontia albicoUis. 



I will not deny feeling a vague sense of disappointment that, although I had 

 been a fairly diligent insect-hunter for upwards of thirty years, none of them had 

 ever fallen to my lot: but when I saw that to many of these rarities written histories 

 were attached, that it was deemed needful as it were to apologize for their possession, 

 and that in very, very few cases could the owner say, " I caught the insect myself," 

 my appetite, like the mouse's, failed for such delicacies, for it was evident, as he said, 

 that the shops had been ransacked to provide them, and that care and doubt were 

 part of the purchase. Besides examining the condition of the specimen, enquiry 

 seemed to be needful into the moral character of the seller and each previous holder 

 of the insect, making the formation of a British collection an occupation more suited 

 to a police ofBccr than a naturalist. 



I suppose 20/- would be considered cheap for a British specimen of any of the 

 above named insects, and some would probably cost £5, not because they are really 

 rare but simply because the British Islands are near the north-western limit of their 

 distribution. On the same principle a specimen of Catocala nvpta worth 3d. in 

 Middlesex ought to be worth 20/- if captured in Yorktshire where it rarely if ever 

 occurs ; and when the passage, involuntary or otherwise, from Calais to Dover adds 

 19/11 to the value of Argynnis Lathonia and £5 to that of Deilephila nerii, and there 

 is no difference of form whatever between a British and a foreign example, the temp- 

 tation to fraud is obviously very great, and the willingness of British collectors to 

 allow themselves to be thus imposed on has made them the laughing stocks of the 

 students of every other branch of science. 



Whatever may formerly have been the ease it is now impossible to make a 

 purely British collection of Lepidoptera, unless the collector restricts himself to 

 specimens of his own capture. It is a well-known fact that foreign specimens of 

 British species are yearly set in English fashion, imported into this country in large 

 numbers, and sold as British ; these are gradually, as collections are dispersed, and all 

 trace of their origin is lost, filtered into every cabinet in the country, and worse, a 

 spirit of distrust is gi-owing up amongst us, injurious to the mind and destructive of 

 that friendship in which the common love and admiration of God's works ought to 

 unite us. 



