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orders, or orders, with references to the places where they are 
described, or where anything valuable concerning them may be 
found. The vast number of forms we deal with renders it quite im- 
possible for any one to study effectively more than one or two large 
groups,* and any information he may want beyond, he can only pro- — 
cure by going over numerous works, and after all may miss what he 
seeks, because it lies perhaps in some foreign journal, where its 
existence is only known to the “ specialist.” I am happy to say that — 
our colleagues, the Rev. Hamlet Clark and Messrs. Bates and Baly, 
have such a Catalogue of the Phytophaga in the press, and I hope it 
will be followed by others, but as such works will only meet the 
wants of a limited class, there will be the risk of a loss on their 
publication, to which many will not be disposed to submit. It 
seems to me that such Societies as the Linnean or Zoological 
would confer a great benefit on the working naturalist, and carry out 
one of the purposes for which they were instituted, if they were to 
facilitate our studies by the publication from time to time of Index- 
Catalogues. Of course we should not expect them to confine the 
work to insects. Every group of the animal kingdom might be taken 
as opportunity occurred. The earlier British Museum Catalogues 
were of this kind, and Dr. Gray deserves the gratitude of all zoolo- 
gists for having originated them. Unfortunately these simple listst 
soon grew into descriptive monographs, and, becoming expensive, lost 
much of their utility. The Trustees, from some cause, have latterly 
nearly dropped the publication even of these. 
Mr. Frederick Smith has kindly informed me that the number of 
specimens of insects added to the Collection of the British Museum 
in the year 1864 has been 2813. Of these 1100 were presented, 
chiefly by Earl Russell, the late Capt. Speke, Dr. Livingstone, J. K. 
Lord, Esq., and Frederick Bond, Esq. 
I have only time to say a few words, in conclusion, relative to our 
collectors abroad. Mr. Bouchard, who has gone out to the southern 
shores of the Gulf of Mexico, has, we hear, arrived at Santa Martha, 
and he is much pleased with the appearance (entomologically) of the 
country. Mr. Bartlett, the naturalist who accompanied Mr. Tristram 
in his recent expedition to the East, has sailed for Para, whence he 
proposes to ascend the Amazon, making his head-quarters about 
* There are about 8000 genera in the Coleoptera alone. 
+ Some of these were published at sixpence, eightpence and one shilling each. 
They are now, I believe, out of print. 
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