28 THE entomologist's record. 



must fegard as tlie terminus of perfection for a lepidopterous pupa, 

 marked by complete fixity of all parts, and roughly speaking, Ijy 

 complete rotundity, is reached. 



eOjI'l'iplEpI'l'yiL LEPID0P1'EI^£ ^OLD £^ Bl^Il'l^ji. 



Bt J. W. TUTT, F.E.S. 



Probably never since the sale of the late Dr. Harper's collection, has 

 a collection been brought to the hammer which, nominally purely 

 British, yet contained so many distinctly non-British specimens, as that 

 of the late Eev. Henry Burney. 



In the sarcastic article on part of this sale, from the pen of a corres- 

 pondent adopting the now de plume of " A Country Cousin," which 

 ap})eared in the December number of this magazine and of which there 

 is a continuation in the present issue, the facts are gi-aplucally dealt 

 with, but I should like to let a little more daylight into some of tlie dark 

 problems Avhich this sale has opened up. 



First, how were this and similar collections formed ? On the same 

 lines as those which were made in " the good old times," when the 

 correct naming of the specimens was the ultimate aim of the individual 

 forming the collection, and the possession of a larger number of species 

 than his friends and correspondents, his main object in doing so. Only 

 as necessary for the first purj)Ose would the older entomologists, Avitli 

 a few notable exceptions, ever invest a few shillings in a book, and only 

 as subserving the second, would they subscribe to a magazine. 

 Stainton's Manual was their salvation in the one direction, and The 

 Entomologist's Annual (a yearly magazine showing the additions to the 

 British fauna) in the otlier. Everything else was outside their province ; 

 they could do nothing to advance scientific knowledge, save within 

 these very limited boundaries, and possibly thought that only lunatics 

 could imagine that there was an}^ science outside such limits. 



Such were the lepidopterists of the old school until tlie new and 

 philosophical method of treating natural science involved entomologists 

 along with other naturalists in its vortex. When this took jilace, the 

 old school became divided into two sections, the broader-minded men 

 being ready and willing to adapt themselves to the changing conditions 

 of study, whilst the narrow-minded, and frequently ill-educated, section 

 kept in the old ruts, lifting up their voices from time to time, now in 

 a chorus of discontent, then in a Avail of despair, as they beheld the de- 

 struction of "science," as they knew it. Gradually this latter section 

 became more and moi-e fossilized ; they still added to their collections, 

 occasionally made a stir by naming a variety as a new species after the 

 manner of the heroes of old, spent enormous sums of money on any 

 specimen that added a species to fill up a blank in their cabinets, but 

 beyond this, became perfectly indifferent to the advance of science 

 Avhich was going on around them. 



That this is no overdrawn picture, every advanced lepidopterist well 

 knows. To this da}^ I have two correspondents who, once or twice a 

 year, write and tell me of the additions which they have made to their 

 collection, and how near they have got to a complete representation of 

 the lepidopterous fauna of Britain by obtaining typical specimens. One 

 gentleman writes me that he has added pereyrina from Burney 's collec- 



