128 THK ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Hyale, we may suppose, would be of no use to the captor, 

 and ihey would remain over for distribution to Lepidopterists 

 in want of the species. One almost envies this hard-working 

 collector the spectacle of their " unbiassed delight." 1 am 

 not perfectly informed whether this was the course taken by 

 the captor of the eight hundred ; but, if it was, he has 

 doubtless made himself the most popular collector in the 

 country. Far be it from me to say that this gentleman was 

 anticipating " the modern school." I merely suggest that 

 such a feat of the old, free spirit of collecting scarcely 

 answers to "a day's enjoyment," but savours rather of 

 " amassing specimens." 



In the case of Leucophasia Sinapis the same reflections are 

 suggested rather more strongly ; while Colias Hyale comes at 

 one time in large numbers, and (whether captured or left 

 alone) then disappears to return again after several years, the 

 gentle creature Sinapis may no doubt be easily exterminated. 

 I can picture to myself the dismay of a collector whose 

 "honest" (but too t!:oughtless) "exertions" have unduly 

 thinned the numbers of a local insect, and the care he will 

 always in future take that a like result shall not again occur. 

 But 1 can not picture (even to myself) the attitude of mind of 

 a collector who knowingly and with determination extirpates 

 Leucophasia Sina)iis, and talks confidently afterwards of the 

 deed being effectually done ! 



So much for these instances (the two strongest, I admit, 

 that I have ever heard of) ; and I am happy to gather that in 

 one way of regarding such feats I am in agreement with your 

 correspondent. With him I cry, " Shame on these collectors ! " 

 But I must decline to collect "in the style of the good old 

 times," for these very instances I have mentioned belong (it 

 will be understood) to the period which your correspondent 

 regards approvingly. I desire to add something upon the 

 status and public estimation of collectors. I am neither a 

 reverend divine nor a person of large independent property, 

 but I am accustomed to show, and to exact, civil treatment ; 

 and out of London I have never found the contrary. I do not 

 receive the snubbing which Mr. Cox has " noticed" in various 

 parts of England, and I hope he is under a misapprehension 

 in regard to it. If, when 1 visit the New Forest (as I do in 

 fact every summer), I carried off say a thousand Zygasna 



