39 
In referring to the notes the date is used the same as an ordinary 
catalogue number by looking on top of the page for the year and then 
down the column for the month and day, which will follow each other 
in serial order the same as in a series of numbers, and will be found 
as readily. Having found the date one will always find the exact 
location and conditions of capture and any other notes thought worth 
recording at the time. 
ADVANTAGES. OF THIS SYSTEM. 
The main advantage of this system over the others is in the fact 
that one can collect and record any number of specimens of a species, 
or any number of species, without materially increasing the labor 
beyond the mere labor of mounting and labeling any specimen, while 
in the other systems each individual specimen must have its acces- 
sions-catalogue number written out and placed on it, a special entry 
made in the accessions catalogue for every species, with all of its 
accompanying records, cross-references, etc., and consequently but 
few specimens can be mounted in a given time. 
Another important factor of utility is in the fact that it is not at all 
necessary to separate or mount up any of the specimens at the time of 
capture. “All that is necessary is to write up the record, place the 
locality and date on the package containing the specimens, and it 
serves the double purpose of an accessions number and the future 
label. In practice we usually mount the specimens at the time of 
making the record and then put them away to dry, labeling them up 
at any convenient time thereafter. ; 
The greatest gain comes from the fact that there is nothing placed 
on the insect that is not necessary to any well-mounted specimen, i. e., 
a place and date label, and that nearly all of this label is or can be 
‘printed, thus requiring a minimum of hand work. 
The fact that this system requires that every specimen be correctly 
labeled with both place and date will commend it to many persons 
who have received material for determination from half a dozen dif- 
ferent experiment stations bearing nothing more distinctive than a 
lead-pencil number. 
An animated discussion followed the reading of this paper. 
Mr. Felt suggested that numerals should not be used to represent 
months. He thought that less confusion would come from the use of 
such abreviations as Jr. for January and Mr. for March. His system 
of note taking required cards, a field book, and an accessions book, 
each being employed for special conditions and rarely duplicating. 
He thought he could not adopt Mr. Ball’s system to advantage. 
Mr. Cockerell said that he used no numbers, and thought that cards 
were more convenient than record books.” In his experience insects 
