NEW WORKS OX ENTOMOLOGY. 171 



of Ceratopocjon and Cecidomyia in the third volume. In the 

 second volume many are mentioned merely by name as British, the 

 specific identity of which is in nowise authenticated, but in many cases 

 is, in all probability, mistaken. The object of enabling the collector 

 to name his insects in the readiest and shortest way is not at all 

 satisfactorily attained. The analytic tables, intended as a guide to 

 the determination of the species, conu' very near the mark indeed 

 in some cases; as in the family Dolichophhv. where the analysis 

 only wants to be carried out further, when it leads to several 

 species collectively. In other cases, they have a semblance of 

 precision, which tends rather to mislead, as in the genera Taehina 

 and Anthomyia. The diagnoses and descriptions are not of uniform 

 quality in all the families ; sometimes the description is little more 

 than a translation or paraphrase of the diagnosis, where the re- 

 petition should have been avoided, if but for the sake of saving 

 room ; nor, in fact, does there appear any good reason for keeping 

 the two distinct. It would have been better if Mr. Walker had 

 consolidated them, confining himself to the distinctive characters, 

 especially those of form, and signalizing the differences from the 

 nearest allied species more particularly than he has done. Scarcely 

 any directions are given where to find the insects, or how to pro- 

 cure them by rearing ; and this iu a w r ork professedly intended for 

 the use of collectors. 



11 Scientific Entomologists have neither right nor motive to look 

 down on those who occupy themselves chiefly with collecting; but 

 on the contrary, the strongest reasons to afford them all possible 

 encouragement and aid. The recruits of science must be drawn 

 from the ranks of the collectors, and many mere collectors have 

 rendered as much good service to science as scientific smatterer- 

 have done harm by their scribbling." 



This last paragraph will naturally not be very palatable to 

 those who look upon themselves as Dons in the science, far re- 

 moved from the collecting prqfanum valgus. Encourage and 

 incite the collector to further progress by all means, but do not 

 show that you view him with contempt and scorn ; by so doing 

 you draw more widely a line of demarcation between those who 

 have not yet crossed the threshold of the temple of the science, and 

 those who are already within its precincts. It' tin' object of those 

 who have entered the penetralia be merely distinction, Mich conduct 

 on their part is natural enough, as by depreciating their neighbours 

 they fancy they exalt themselves; need we add, that we view- 

 such conduct, as the offspring of a puerile vanity, loathsome in the 

 eyes of all right-minded individuals. 



