162 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The foregoing resolution was brought forward by Mr. Double- 

 day at a meeting held at his residence on Nov. 16th, 1843, and, 

 after the paragraph referring to " duplicates of British insects " 

 had been reworded so as to include foreign examples of species 

 reputed to be British, was carried without dissent. A Committee 

 was then appointed to deal with the selection of specimens for 

 the National Museum, the question of disposing of the remainder 

 of the foreign insects being postponed for a future meeting to 

 consider. 



At a meeting held in December, 1843, it was decided to 

 request members wishing to obtain the return of insects given to 

 the Club to send the Secretary notice to that effect, together with 

 particulars ; but, according to the report of the Selection Com- 

 mittee, which was presented on Feb. 15th, 1844, it would seem 

 that some members had thought that the result of the proceed- 

 ings at the meeting held in the previous November warranted 

 them in acting at once, and they had therefore secured possession 

 of the insects which they had presented to the Club. 



The foreign insects having been deposited at the British 

 Museum to " enable the officers of that establishment to make a 

 selection," it appears that they did so, as the Keport continues : — 



" That they have since set apart, and deposited in nine large 

 boxes, all such as they consider (on a liberal construction of the word) 

 to be desiderata to the public collection, and which will form a hand- 

 some and acceptable addition thereto, being generally in good con- 

 dition, many of them rare, and including a considerable number of 

 authenticated typical specimens of insects first described by Mr. 

 Newman. 



" That they have properly limited themselves to as small a number 

 as is required to illustrate each species in those cases where the Club 

 collection contained many specimens. Tbe total number of specimens 

 set apart by them appears by Mr. Doubleday's statement to be upwards 

 of 5700. 



" That Mr. Gray is prepared to recommend to the Trustees of the 

 Museum to present to the Club, from amongst the duplicates of British 

 and reputed British insects in the public collection, specimens of all 

 such as are desiderata to the Club. The Committee had not any 

 means of judging how far this may extend, but Mr. Doubleday is of 

 opinion that some few truly native specimens of great rarity may be 

 so obtained, although no idea of the number of the reputed British 

 insects can be formed until the whole of their general collection shall 

 have been examined. 



" No portion of the selected insects are at present appropriated to 

 the Museum, but the whole await the final determination of the Club. 



" It appears that among the selected insects there are about one 

 hundred species of Coleoptera, collected by Messrs. Doubleday and 

 Foster in North America, which the former gentleman wishes to send 

 to Dr. Harris at Boston, U.S., for examination by him, and it will 

 probably be thought desirable that these should not be given up to the 

 Museum until they may be returned from Dr. Harris. 



