230 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



making rules when you can neither compel obedience nor 

 punish disobedience ? ' This difficulty would perhaps be fatal if 

 the whole body of collectors were utterly reprobate. Happily 

 they are not ; and I believe that a large number would be strictly 

 loyal, and the majority more or less loyal, to the decisions of the 

 Entomological Society. This in itself would be a gain, and would 

 rapidly create a strong public opinion. And for the recalcitrants, 

 the reprobates, it would be the business of the loyal entomologist 

 resolutely to take them in hand. The head Society would keep 

 and publish a black list of offenders ; it would be the plainest 

 duty of every respectable collector to give the Society information 

 of any offence against the code. Proved offenders would be ex- 

 pelled from all societies ; they would be debarred from ' exchange ' ; 

 they would be excluded from the pages of all entomological 

 journals. To an entomologist this would be no light sentence. 

 Dealers could easily be tackled. They are not, in my view, 

 nearly so much to blame as amateur collectors, but their depre- 

 dations are too serious to be passed over. Any professional 

 * naturalist ' that sold British butterflies and moths in any 

 stage, alive or dead, during the close season, would be placed 

 under the ban of the Entomological Society ; and collectors 

 would be instructed not to deal with him for any purposes. 

 (This would not, I hope, bring the officers of the Society within 

 the law against boycotting, or make them guilty conspirators.)" 



The following extract is from a paper entitled " Preservation 

 of Rare British Animals," by Mr. John T. Carrington (' Science 

 Gossip ' for August) : — 



" In every division of nature and in every region of the earth 

 there appear to be waves in the abundance and scarcity of certain 

 species of the feral inhabitants. Eeturning to those of Britain, 

 we may consider one of the most studied and best understood of 

 the great orders — that of the Lepidoptera, or butterflies and i 

 moths. In my own time of active observation, extending to 

 nearly forty years, we have known some species in many parts 

 of the country which were generally common, or at least by no 

 means rare, to have practically disappeared. As an example I may 

 mention the 'brown-tail moth' (Porthesia {Lijyaris) chrysorrha'a), 

 which twenty years since was a comparatively common species 

 throughout the South of England, but is now rarely or hardly 

 ever found. The same applies to that handsome butterfly the 

 ' black- veined white' {Aporia cratagi), which was abundant half 

 a century ago throughout southern England and South Wales. 

 Without mentioning others, these two instances are sufficient to 

 prove that some other agency than that of the collector must 

 have caused their disappearance ; because, in the first place, 

 there have never been in this country a sufficient number of 

 persons who required specimens of these once common sj^ecies 

 to have exterminated them. Neither have some of the localities 



