OONTlNENTAL hkl'lliOVTtillA SOLD AS BKITISH. 29 



tion, satiira from Canterbury, find so on ; it is liis science, all that lie 

 lives for, and the poor fellow enjoys it in his way. 



It will be no insult to the late reverend gentleman to say that he 

 belonged emphatically to the old school of collectors. For years he has 

 taken practically no interest in entomology beyond the amassing of a 

 large collection, which probably not half-a-dozen men have seen during 

 the last quarter of a century. Out of touch with the newer entomology, 

 ignorant as to what species had been foisted on the British 2)ublic as 

 natives which had no claim to that position, as well as of the swindlers 

 who live and thrive on the gullibility of collection-makers and rare- 

 sjiecies-seekers, he spent vast sums of money upon insects which were 

 foisted u^jon him as British, by gentlemen (?) who found him an easy 

 prey, and whose specimens, with the warranty of the " Eev. H. 

 Burney's collection " attached to them, are now dispersed to all parts of 

 the British Islands, to crop up as British at some future time to puzzle 

 scientific workers and to throw doubt upon conclusions and deductions 

 that they may have made. Who believes that a single specimen of the 

 Leucania tausculosa, the L. loreyi, the Notodonta tritoplms, in short of 

 nine-tenths of those species mentioned by "A Country Cousin," had a 

 really British origin ? Some do, you say, or they would not have 

 bought them. Just so, but these buyers knew that the specimens are 

 worth their money as an investment, and buy them as such to sell to 

 other collectors either now, or at some future time when their own col- 

 lections go to the hammer. But, ajjart from the buyer, who does believe 

 in their British origin ? Well, I will leave it to each individual's own 

 common sense to hnd an answer to the question. 



Now tliere are two kinds of people who arc involved in this fraudu- 

 lent sale of British specimens. Kent has for many years had an unenvi- 

 able notoriety. Canterbury and its neighbourliood have Ijeen, and perhaj^s 

 still are, a by-Avord in entomological circles. London perhaps comes 

 next, unless indeed it has to yield to Aberdeen, which, during the last 

 few years has out-Heroded Herod, whilst the Isle of Wight has increased 

 in shadiness in recent years. But this is due to individuals who outdo 

 themselves, whom the older collectors know too well, and who have to 

 find a fresh coterie of buyers among the" younger additions to our ranks 

 on whom to try their charms. These persons send out their sjjecimens of 

 A. lathonia, P. daplidire, L. acis, V. antiopa, Sphinx j^iii^ustri, Deileplida 

 livornica, Deiopeia pulchella^ Lytliria purpuraria, Apjlaata ononaria, Eubolla 

 moeninta, Leucautu miisculosa, and so on, on their own account, trusting to 

 their cheek to help them through. But there is another class of rogues 

 who use the names of well-known lepidopterists to conjure with. An 

 illustration referring to m^'self will sutfice. In the Burney collection 

 was a specimen mai'ked in the Catalogue as "Cerastis eri/tJirocephala var. 

 glabra (Mr. Tutt)." This was Lot 169. Then Lot 184 reads :— " Eerba- 

 riuta (Mr. Tutt) 2." Now I have never seen a living specimen nor 

 have I exchanged a specimen living or dead of either of these insects in 

 my life ; nor had I ever seen these specimens until they were exhibited 

 for sale in the Eev. H. Burney's collection. Some rogue therefore, 

 either in my name, or in his own with a forged guarantee, sold these to 

 Mr. Burney, and thus a clue is obtained as to the way in which that 

 gentleman became possessed of his rarities. A space to fill was 

 sufficient, money did the rest. I never Avrote to Mr. Burney in my life. 

 I wonder whether anyone would pass oif these species on any of our 



