NOTES ON COLLECTING, ETC. 61 



by correspondence, there was a great deal of difficulty in arranging 

 that members, who could be of the greatest use to each other, should 

 be in the same basket. However, this was arranged in a fashion, and 

 the baskets began to circulate. After two or three rounds something 

 like an idea as to the entomological capacity of the various members 

 could be formulated. There were first of all the men who did badly 

 but who could not do better ; secondly, the men who did badly, ana 

 might have done better ; thirdly, those who did satisfactorily as far as 

 their specimens were concerned, but continually grumbled at their own 

 generosity and the other members' want of it ; and lastly, those who 

 did well, and tried to make the system a success. The first class were 

 soon hopelessly out of it, and as soon as they felt that they were 

 useless in the basket, resigned. The second class simply reflected the 

 lowest type of collector. As an example of this class I call to mind 

 one man who cleared out everything on every occasion the basket 

 came to him, and when I cut him out wrote to me that he had taken 

 pyrophila^ myriae, etc., common this year at Aberdeen, and I want to 

 make some return for what I have taken." Needless to say he never 

 had the chance. Perhaps there have been some dozen men of this 

 type, but I have generally got rid of them by dropping them altogether. 

 I have had to quietly get rid of two or three quite recently. No one 

 feels any compunction about dropping such as these. With the third 

 class it is different. They begin by doing you a favour in joining. 

 They don't see that they should be bound down by any rules. They 

 put in good insects themselves and other people's insects aren't always 

 quite so fine. They never get anything out of the basket they want 

 (but they always take as many or more specimens than any one else). 

 They cannot understand why people don't put in enough of a sort to 

 make a series. They are c[uite willing to be in the " Club," but they 

 certainly shall not put in their rarest things. So-and-so is ill, and so- 

 and-so has nothing left fit for exchange, don't you think we had better 

 rest ? I have no time to write notes this round, and so on ad nauseam. 

 What delightful people these are in a basket ! I sometimes think them 

 worse than the second class above. The fourth class are the leaven 

 of the whole business. Men who collect nothing too good for the 

 baskets ; who discuss any subject, with which they are familiar, at 

 length in the note-books ; who are always ready with information for 

 the use of their fellow-members ; who send their choicest specimens 

 by post for exhibition ; who study the convenience of other members to 

 every degree. -It is invidious to particularise, but Mr. Webb as an 

 exhibitor ; Messrs. Fenn, Farren and Richardson, as kindness personi- 

 fied in giving information, and Mr, Holland as a type of generosity 

 with his specimens, cannot be excelled. I might mention fifty other 

 members who have given me nearly equal help in my attempt to run 

 the show and helped me in the difficulties I have had to encounter. 

 Sometimes I am disposed to throw up the whole affair when some indi- 

 vidual makes himself particularly obnoxious, but I feel satisfied that the 

 principle of exchange adopted is the true one and the mutual help in 

 other matters is beyond cavil. 



Some strange experiences are met with. One member never by any 

 chance put in more than eight specimens, and every round suggested 

 retiring because the boxes were so empty. I find, too, on reference 



