78 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



which, to my mind, only tends to make this truly enlightening 

 science uninteresting. I certainly value a specimen of my own 

 catching far before one purchased, or an exchange either; to say 

 nothing of the contempt with which I view that ambitious feeling 

 of who shall make the most complete collection. If working up 

 the insect fauna in different districts were more encouraged, 

 entomology would be taken up in a far healthier spirit than it is 

 at present ; and if I were only possessed of the means of some of 

 my more fortunate brother entomologists, I would certainly offer 

 a prize once a year to each Society for the finest local collection 

 of all orders of insects, proved to be the collector's own collecting. 

 I think I should then prove the fact that he would have greater 

 pleasure for his pains, and learn more by closer examination of 

 the hunting-grounds of his neighbourhood than by wandering a 

 hundred miles away in search of a hidden treasure he has already 

 probably passed in his daily walks. London entomologists, 

 especially, have, within easy reach, as fine and varied fields of 

 operation as anyone could possibly wish. To prove my argument, 

 with the editor's permission, I will give, in an early number of 

 the ' Entomologist,' a list of Macro- and Micro-Lepidoptera that 

 I have taken within five miles of the Marble Arch. — H. Sharp ; 

 37, Union Street, Portland Place. 



[By all means, if accompanied by notes and localities. — Ed.] 



u 



By mutual confidence and mutual aid." — It often 

 happens that when an entomologist visits a strange place for a 

 short holiday he either does not know at all what insects may be 

 expected, or knowing that certain local species do occur in the 

 neighbourhood, he cannot find the locality ; and it is perhaps not 

 until after he has left that he finds that there was a fellow- 

 entomologist living in the district who could have given him the 

 very information he needed. Would it not be possible to publish 

 occasionally in the ' Entomologist ' a list of names and addresses 

 of gentlemen who would be willing to render assistance in this 

 way to strangers visiting their district ? Of course such a plan 

 is open to the objection that some species would be exterminated 

 if the locality where they occur were generally known. Still each 

 one could use his own judgment as to how much it was wise to 

 disclose in each individual case ; and without disclosing any of 

 his " pet localities " he might render very valuable and welcome 



