130 THE entomologist's record. 



the excellent president, Mr. Hall, and the unequalled secretaries, 

 Messrs. Edwards and Turner, surpassed themselves. That the 

 excellent collections of Messrs. Billups, C. Briggs, Adkin, Hall, South, 

 J. A. Clark, Turner, C. G. Barrett, S. Edwards, and other leading 

 lights of the South London Avere strongly represented, goes without 

 saying ; that Mr. Leech's marvellous collection of PalfBarctic 

 Lepidoptera, Mr. .J. A. Cooper's bird's eggs, probably the most scientific 

 collection in the country, Mr. J. T.Carrington's shells, together with a 

 large collection of botanical specimens, charts representing insect life 

 in its economic aspects, a collection of freshly-gathered fungi, and the 

 lectures of Dr. Cooke and Mr. Enoch added to the educational value 

 of the meeting, will be already conceded. 



Socially, one meets many friends from the provinces that one sees 

 at no other time, and even for this purpose the exhibitions are to be 

 praised, and the enthusiasm of the provincials is often remarkably 

 contrasted with the custom of a large number of entomologists who 

 live in the metropolis, and are yet as much strangers as if they lived 

 at the North Pole, but who turn out methodically at the exhibitions to 

 exhibit their "Gooseberry" moths and "Tigers," their black 

 " Admirals" and leaden-coloured " Blues," and to do other equally 

 kind things when an important occasion demands the sacrifice. 



Putting aside the " wholesale " part of the exhibition, there were 

 many fresh and excellent things to observe. Among others the 

 Shetland and Scotch insects exhibited by Mr. Bright — marvellous 

 Hrpiabtx /niDiidi, variable ('ri/iiiodcx I'.ndis, Sriajihila nilquhaunana, 

 dark Xartiia (/lan'osa, i-aveCrainbus nii/i-Uiis and .Vs/rt scoliiffnDu'j^. Then 

 the excellent work of Mr. Hamm, of Beading, was well illustrated by 

 Se.sia sjihcj/iforniis, Stawopm fcu/i of great variety, charming Xanthia 

 auraijn, altlaough the finest vars. of this species were exhibited by Mr. 

 Chittenden — yellow, with no central stigmata whatever. Across the 

 table Mr. .T. A. Clark discoursed on the absurdity of men saying that 

 they could not see well enough to set Micros, when, with a wonderful lens 

 he exhibited, he shewed that one could set out AVy;(/r;//rt(', which looked al- 

 most as large as Blues. What is to be said of the charming Thaids and 

 Anthocharids of Mr. A. H. Jones, and endless other fine things, or the 

 little boxes that people dragged out of the deepest recesses of their 

 clothing — this one containing a couple of charming Xcnit/iia (icdlaris, 

 that a superb freshly-bred specimen of CuculUa i/uap/udii, or a variety 

 of Maiiifstra hras.sicae that hardly anyone can name, a specimen of 

 Art/i/iuiis sclcue, with scarcely any dark spots, and so on. 



The feature of the show was variation. Say what you like, but 

 that is the pivot on which the whole feeling of entomologists moves ; 

 each one exhibits his varieties. Here and there branch issues crop up. 

 There are Mr. Merrifield's specimens exhibiting the variation resulting 

 from his temperature experiments, here are some marvellous hybrids 

 of silkworm moths bred by ]\Iiss Emily Morton, whose name 

 so often figiires in our exchange column. These indicate, as surely 

 as the shadow moving across the face of the sundial, the 

 onward progress of time. The collector may still ransack fen and 

 hill, moor and moss for rarities which will bring in a consideration 

 for his trouble some day, but he is being left behind by his contem- 

 poraries, who get more enjoyment than "coppers" out of their 

 specimens. 



