NOTES ON L'OLliECTlN(i, ETC. 49 



the insects should be on pins of a particular size or on black pins. 

 Some, I am sorry to say only a very few, offered to make some return ; in 

 the majority of instances the species offered were those described in the 

 Dfannnl as " common everywhere." Nevertheless, I was greatly obliged 

 by their offers, and in one or two instances was glad to avail myself 

 of them. 



And now a word as to the boxes sent. These were a very mixed 

 lot, the " common or garden " cigar box occupying a prominent position. 

 It will not be out of place, perhaps, for me to remind your younger 

 readers, that such a vehicle, with an address laliel stuck on the top, and 

 without a shred of packing, offers an opportunity too good to be lost, 

 to the Post Office officials, to " punch the l)ag." lu several instances, the in- 

 tegrity of the boxes had suffered from their treatment, they being more or 

 less smashed in ; in one case, the whole concern was broken up ; in 

 another, some insects, which were being sent to me, were reduced to such 

 a condition, that I was half inclined to suppose that the sender, having a 

 laudable desire to prevent their receiving any farther injury whilst 

 jjassing through the post, treated them to a few turns in a coffee mill 

 before despatching them ; the insects, wings, thoraces, abdomens, legs, 

 etc., being reduced to a fine powder. 



And now for the moral. Whilst some of the letters received came 

 undoubtedly from gentlemen of education, with whose modest require- 

 ments I had great pleasure in complying, I am, with regret, compelled 

 to say, that 1 fear the majority of those who wrote to me, were of the 

 genus "grab." Some of the former I hope to be able to supply with 

 additional insects in the autumn of 1894 ; for even my long rows of 

 duplicates were, in several cases, too short to enable me to supjjly 

 every one. To the latter I would say, " Amend your ways, and re- 

 member the saying relative to the assistance rendered to those who 

 help themselves. 



My boxes are now practically empty, but after my recent experience, 

 I shall hesitate before I undertake to collect and preserve any consider- 

 able number of insects for another year's indiscriminate and gratuitous 

 distribution. — Arthur Lovell Keays, Upwood Tower, Caterham 

 Valley. 



Note by the Editor. — The results of our correspondent's " gra- 

 tuitous offer " do not come as a surprise to me, although, in themselves, 

 unsatisfactory enough. For half-a-century or more, those who have 

 tried the effects of indiscriminate gratuitous distribution have told the 

 same sorry story, and have, more or less, deduced the same moral. 

 Further, the lesson which they have learned they have applied to their 

 practice, and have ventured no more in the same direction. But some of 

 our correspondent's generalisations will not hold water. Probably two of 

 the " old school " to which our correspondent refers, " Stainton and 

 Doubleday," were of so entirely generous a natui'e, that many un- 

 deserving appeals met with a ready response from them but I doubt 

 whether even they, after a little experience, ever went in f(U- indiscri- 

 minate distribution, although, to get an introduction through a mutual 

 friend, was sufficient for them to become willing benefactors. But it is 

 to tlie phrase "a race now passed away," that I take most exception. 

 This shows that our correspondent is not at all an fait with British 

 entomologists, for I could mention half-a-dozen living lepidopterists 

 who give away freely year by year a greater number of insects than 



