PREFACE. V 



to the " old hands," yet, if any one feels himself aggrieved 

 in this matter, if he wishes it, I shall be happy to give him 

 a copy of the second edition in exchange for his copy of the 

 first. 



Several letters which I have received from new Corre- 

 spondents concerning " The Annual," contain such useful 

 suggestions, that a few extracts will not be out of place here. 



" Your estimate of the number of Entomological workers 

 is rather amusing, and I would suggest to you to try and 

 gather materials for a paper on Entomological Statistics, 

 as it would really be very interesting ; and if you will only 

 get some correspondent in every town to send you the names 

 or numbers of all he knows devoted to studying or collecting 

 in any division of Entomology, instead of your estimate of 

 four hundred only, I am disposed to think it would be nearer 

 a thousand. But then, I admit, many of these would be 

 found in the humbler classes of society, and not book-buyers. 

 As far as my experience goes, Entomologists, especially those 

 ' who amuse themselves with catching insects,' are far shyer 

 in declaring themselves than Botanists and other Naturalists; 

 and, if I must speak the truth, are too often more selfish, de- 

 lighting to find anything very rare, but very chary indeed 

 of divulging the secret to any one else. The majority too 

 of collecting Entomologists are not of a literary turn, and 

 this tends to prevent their being known themselves, or know- 

 ing what is going on in the literary world. Thus, I have 

 frequently met with men who had stored up good boxes of 

 insects, of their own collecting, but knew nothing of their 

 classification — merely the common names, ' Mother Shipton,' 

 'Wood White,' ' Skipper/ &c. &c, but had not a book on 

 the subject. 



A3 



