280 f^-'^y' 



How often have I heard remarks like this, " Yes, it is a fine collection, but what 

 " do you think about that row of Laihonia ? " or " That's the 20th bicolora I know 

 " of, but I never heard of Bouchard catching more than 4 or 5," and so the character 

 of honorable men is talked away and suspicion and distrust engendered. 



Hear an old writer, " Through their beauty and variety of colour and exquisite 

 "forme, they do bring to a liberal and gentle minde the remembrance of honestie, 

 " comclinesse, and all kinds of virtues ; for it would be unseemly for him that doth 

 " look upon and handle fau-e and beautiful things, and who frequenteth and is con- 

 " versant in faire and beautiful places, to have his minde not faire alsoe." 



I remember when Newman reviewed the list of entomologists published in the 

 Annual for 1860, that he made merry over a certain eminent pliilosopher whose name 

 adorns the list, and who was said to " study, but to have no collection." Perhaps it 

 might have been wiser to have imitated than to laugh, to have followed his steps, 

 however humbly, rather than pursue the ignis fatuiis of a British collection as so 

 many of us have done. I think it very doubtful if the great majority of the collec- 

 tions of Lepidoptera made in England during the last thirty years have done any 

 service to science or their owners. In point of fact, where are they ? The once 

 valued treasures of more than half the collectors enumerated in the Annual, have 

 long gone to the moles and bats. 



I believe there is but one remedy for the evil state of things which exists 

 amongst us, viz., the open admission into our collections of properly labelled conti- 

 nental specimens of our rarer species : this would not only open a field of know- 

 ledge to which the gi'cat majority of English Lepidopterists are total strangers, and 

 tend to make them something more than mere collectors, but would also enable them, 

 if desired, to obtain British examples at much lower rates than at present, for there 

 would be little or no inducement to mis-state the facts as to the origin of a specimen. 

 The proposed change would also, I hope, tend to mitigate the merciless war now 

 waged against our very limited Lepidopterous fauna, and give new comers a chance 

 of establishing themselves. 



Unwillingness to enter upon an almost boundless field has, I believe, deterred 

 many from making an attempt to obtain some knowledge of European insects, but I 

 speak from experience when I say that the difficulties are not serious. I do not 

 advise the making of general collections, but the selection of limited departments, 

 such for instance as the butterflies of Europe ; there are 450 species of these, and I 

 have obtained about 400 of them without any expense beyond postage, continental 

 collectors being most M-illing to send them in retui-n for many common British insects. 

 Foreign entomologists complain of the difficulty they find in getting British speci- 

 mens, owing to our insular prejudices, and I have little doubt our collectors will be 

 able to turn their now almost worthless duplicates to much better account than they 

 can at present, if they take my advice. 



It is not even necessary to understand French or German, though should any of 

 our collectors be induced to study those languages, they will find another and rich 

 reward. — Edwin Bikcuall, Woodside, Douglas, Isle of Man : March 28th, 1877. 



On the occurrence of Heliothis scutosa in Norfolk. — A very interesting addition 

 was made to the list of British Lepidoptera in the summer of 1875, and has been 

 passed over almost unnoticed — that of Heliothis scutosa, of which one specimen was 

 obtained by Mr. Thornthwaite from Norfolk that year, and a second in the summer 

 of 1876. 



