230 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



or Mesoptarain, in the trenches and camps of France herself, 

 and Macedonia — to observe and record such insect life as that 

 with which he has made acquaintance on active service. 



But when we come to survey the work done in the land we 

 live in, especially as reflected in the reports and proceedings of 

 our Natural History Societies, the results, from the exploration 

 standpoint, are not encouraging. Men flock from year to year 

 to the known haunts where they are sure of a big bag of — 

 nothing new. I have been struck by the persistent repetition 

 of exhibits at meetings, where boxes upon boxes of the same 

 butterfly, for example, from the same place are served up for 

 inspection, often with not even the excuse that they illustrate 

 any particular ]ihase of variation. Then comes the inevitable 

 day when the locality is found to be "worked out"; when 

 Melitcea atDalia, let us say, has been exterminated from its 

 last woodland stronghold in such and such a county ; when 

 Erebia cBthiops has vanished with the snows of yester-year 

 from its accustomed patch of land. The work of extermina- 

 tion is complete and the destroyers wait for someone else to 

 announce a find elsewhere. It is useless appealing to the common- 

 sense of these gentlemen, and dealers can hardly be expected 

 to hold their hands when a living is to be made by purveying 

 specimens to those who either by force of circumstances are 

 unable to travel themselves (though they have apparently plenty 

 of money to invest with the purveyor or in the sale-rooms), or 

 are too indolent and uninterested as naturalists to make their 

 own captures. 



Pioneer work in terra incognita is hardly to be expected from 

 this section of collectors : much less from the ranks of the 

 dealers who, quite naturally, having found a convenient spot 

 for a rare or local species keep close their secret at least until 

 they have effectively killed the goose who lays the golden 

 eggs. We must look rather to those who love Nature for Nature's 

 sake and having the means and opportunity are prepared to 

 sacrifice a certain bag for reduced results so far as actual 

 acquisition is concerned. I believe I am right in saying that 

 the entomologists of our time who have added most to the 

 common fund of our science have no collections of their own. 

 Their captures, after study, have been placed in the Natural 

 History or other Museums, or are distributed in the cabinets of 

 others. 



For all who can afford an entomological holiday there are at 

 home as Mr. Sheldon, and abroad on the nearer Continent as 

 M. Oberthiir suggest, vast tracts of country virgin to the lepi- 

 dopterist. How many counties are there in Britain and Ireland 

 of which no complete and accurate list has ever been compiled, 

 even of the one-time named Macrolepidoptera ? In Scotland, 

 north of the Clyde and Forth, there are one or two centres 



