36 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



nature, or attempts to get as many different kinds of a group — 

 say, for instance, butlerflies— as possible, to arrange fantastically 

 as pretty objects. Others collect with the object, more or less 

 sincere, to learn what they can of their specimens by serious 

 work, or send them on to some scientific worker. 



" It is to those of this latter group, or who desire to be of this 

 group, that I now speak. 



" Latterly most of my spare time has been given to systematic 

 classification, and I have had but little opportunity for field 

 observation and collecting, so that in offering advice upon it I 

 am unable to proudly point you to myself as a living example of 

 what a perfect specimen of collector should be. My advice must 

 therefore be taken at its face value. I have, however, in my 

 work as a sytematist realized the important help that a collector 

 might often have given if he had but known that it would have 

 been helpful. 



" But you may ask what special importance lies in the classifi- 

 cation of specimens ? Doubtless you will be satisfactorily 

 answered when you think that before the interesting and im- 

 portant studies of life-history, comparative anatomy, and zoo- 

 geography can be well done it must be exactly known what 

 animal or plant is being studied. Now I hold that, at any rate 

 in our State, there is great need for systematic collecting and the 

 accurate identification of the species of many groups of at least 

 the Invertebrata. In plants and the higher animals little possibly 

 remains to be done in this particular. 



" One has but to take a seaside or country walk, and attempt 

 to get a specific determination of very many of even common 

 specimens of many groups of invertebrate animals, to find himself 

 beset with almost insurmountable difficulties. This should not 

 be. 



" For the doing of this work it is first of all necessary to collect 

 specimens, and although the collector may unfortunately not 

 expect to be able to do anything himself with the specimens, he 

 may know of some reliable person who is working the particular 

 group to which his specimens belong, to whom he may send them, 

 or, failing this, there is the National Museum, where he may rest 

 assured that his material will be well preserved, and will be 

 valuable, if not now, in time to come, as specialists of energy and 

 ability come forward to examine and record matters of interest 

 concerning them. By either method his work will not be wasted, 

 and also it will be recorded in his name, with his field notes 

 made use of. 



" It is, I think, an unfortunate thing that the importance of the 

 collector's work is not sufiiciently realized by some systematic 

 workers, and this is often so because of his having furnished 

 practically no data with the specimens. The co-operation of 



