NOTES AND OBSEBVATIONS. 143 



For, to those who prefer the English style, a well-set specimen is a 

 thing of beauty and a joy for ever ; whereas a continental specimen, 

 impaled on a long clumsy skewer, is a painful and distressing object. 

 But of course there are differently constituted minds and varying 

 standards of beauty, and where the uninstructed insular eye sees only 

 ugliness and contortion, the enlightened cosmopolitan may be more 

 happily circumstanced, for possibly 



" Some biclden band 



Uuveils to him the loveliness 

 Which others cannot understand." 



But I should like to ask for somewhat fuller information, on behalf 

 of those among us who do not confine themselves simply to the Lepi- 

 doptera ; for on the Continent it is the custom not to set Hymenoptera 

 or Diptera at all, but simply to impale them at the top of long stakes. 

 Are we to adopt the more advanced methods of the civilized world in 

 this respect also, or shall we still be permitted to follow our own 

 savage instincts and endeavour to set our specimens properly ? 



But consider further, what Mr. Sabiue has already so cogently 

 urged — the immense amount of inconvenience and heavy loss the pro- 

 posed "reformation" would involve to the vast majority, in order to 

 save a small minority a quite inconsiderable amount of trouble. For 

 most British set insects can be easily relaxed and reset in the con- 

 tinental manner, if desired, and collectors of continental specimens 

 would require very few of them ; whereas, if the continental method 

 of setting became general here, our cabinets would be rendered useless, 

 and our entire collections would have to be reset, or replaced by fresh 

 specimens ; and this would entail so much labour, expense, and loss 

 of time, that most of us would require a new lease of life before we 

 were justified in incurring it. The parrot cry of " insular prejudice^" 

 which is so commonly urged against collectors of exclusively British 

 insects, is almost unworthy of notice ; for it is obvious that everybody 

 must decide for himself how far he will go, and draw the line some- 

 where. We " islanders " have no objection whatever to others collect- 

 ing the insects of the entire universe if they can ; but it is expedient 

 for most of us to confine ourselves to a particular part of the earth's 

 surface, and that portion which constitutes our own country appears 

 most convenient to the vast majority. 



That collectors who are in a hurry to get together a heterogeneous 

 collection, by indiscriminate exchanging with all sorts and conditions 

 of men, should sometimes be dissatisfied with the result, seems to be 

 quite in accordance with the known laws of Nature. They should 

 confine their exchanging to those whose methods of setting suit them, 

 and not endeavour, vainly, to suppress other people's individuality in 

 order to absorb it into their own. — W. H. Harwood ; Colchester. 



Tinea cochylidella, Stn. — Mr. Bankes (E.M. M. 2, viii. p. 79) 

 states that he has examined the " unique specimen described by 

 Stainton in Ins. Brit. Lep. Tin. p. 32 (1854) as Tinea cochylidella, 

 n;sp.," and is of opinion that it is only "a strongly aberrant speci- 

 men of T. ruricolella, Stn." He further considers that the last named 

 is quite distinct from cloacclla, Haw. — K. S. 



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