RETKOSPECT OF A LEPIDOPTERIST FOR 1905. 807 



Little as our purely British collectors have been able to exhibit as 

 a result of the year's work, those who take their walks abroad can 

 show a fair amount of recorded faunal distribution as the result of 

 their labour in the Pahiearctic region. Britishers are responsible for 

 faunal investigations in various districts, (\//., Balearic Isles (Jones, 

 Standen), Spain (Standen, Sheldon), Pyrenees (Rowland-]>rown, 

 Standen), Corsica (Powell, Hosa), Alalia (Fletcher), Basses- Alpes 

 and Hautes-Alps (Sheldon, Chapman), Riviera (Sheldon, Tutt), 

 Switzerland (Wheeler), Val d'Herens, Saas-Thal (Tutt), the Valais 

 (Keynes), Syria and Egypt (Graves), Geneva district (Tutt). As 

 bearing on the point we would call attention to Hofner's publication 

 of "Die Schmetterlinge Karntens." It is really remarkable that the 

 few keen, intelligent men who are mastering (in the best sense) the 

 European fauna, can show so much more than the hundreds of 

 those who confine their operations within the limits of our own 

 shores, but so it is. Collections are means, not ends. How many 

 Britishers still make collections ends ? We really long for British 

 collectors to offer us for publication useful observations. Before 

 leaving this side of our subject, we should like to point out to one of 

 our friends above that Erehia uielcn^ is not supposed now to haunt the 

 Pyrenees. 



The Societies appear to be going well. We must congratulate first 

 of all our old friend Mr. S. J. Capper, the veteran president of the 

 Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society, and no less heartily 

 the well-deserved honour that fell to the share of Mr. Merrifield, the 

 popular president of the Entomological Society of London. Of the 

 active South London Entomological and Natural History Society, Mr. 

 Main and his active secretaries, Messrs. Edwards and Turner, have charge, 

 and Mr. Mera and his popular secretaries, Messrs. Bell and Harris, look 

 after the City of London Entomological Society. Mr. G. T. Bethune- 

 Baker is the president of the Birmingham Entomological Society, 

 Dr. W. E. Hoyle of the Manchester Entomological Society, and 

 Mr. Dixon of the Leicester Entomological Society. These are all 

 centres of good work ; one Avonders sometimes Avhether the members 

 are always pushed in the right direction so vigorously as they should be. 



" The Englishman takes his pleasures sadly" — so the old saw hath 

 it. He may, but enjoyment is all a matter of temperament, and if we 

 do not howl as much as some, we can do our share of that too — at 

 times. The only regret that we feel in having got beyond the howling- 

 stage is that there appear to be few capable youngsters coming on m 

 this direction. But to return to our pleasures. On the convivial 

 side, there has been Mr. Verrall's great central meeting, and other 

 social evenings have been given by Messrs. R. Adkin, H. Donis- 

 thorpe, A. Harrison, T. Hall, G. T. Porritt, and A. Sich. W^e dare 

 say there have been others, so that entomologists on the Avhole have 

 done well. We must own a weakness for this side of entomological 

 life ; one sees a good many people about whom one has wondered, 

 and tried to think out some of the puzzles they have seen in their 

 letters, etc., before one knew them in the flesh. The appointment 

 of Mr. C. 0. Waterhouse to be Assistant-Keeper of the Insect Section 

 of the Zoological Department of the Natural History Museum was a 

 popular one; the entomologist must be hard to please who was not well 

 satisfied with this appointment. The " Sale of the Mason Collection " 



