38 
COLLECTING INSECTS. 
as alone valuable, for “ the vilest insect that 
crawls is as deserving of notice as the ele- 
phant.”**^ From the circumstance, too, that 
many insects are only abundant at distant and 
uncertain periods, it is advisable, however com- 
mon an insect may be, to take a good supply 
at once, and not run the risk of losing a spe 
cies by neglecting to take it at the proper time ; 
and when rare and local insects are met with, 
not to neglect the opportunity of taking suffi- 
cient, in order not only to oblige others by the 
gift of specimens which they may not possess, 
but also to exchange duplicates for other spe- 
cies which may be desiderata, by which means 
a mutual benefit is conferred. Persons col- 
lecting for their friends should send them as 
many different kinds and as many of each as 
possible, and those who oblige their friends, 
whose object is to collect only the indigenous 
insects of Britain, should never, on any account, 
send them foreign species, nor any that are 
doubtful by being imported with merchandize, 
timber, plants, seeds, or otherwise, without 
separating and labelling them accordingly. 
The Entomologist would be gratified by in- 
formation respecting the time of appearance, or 
♦ Macleay. 
