68 GROTE A ROBINSON. 



Museum, the difficulty of carrying out such a measure, to which the 

 future would be fruitful in opponents, must become apparent to re- 

 flecting minds. A little consideration will also show that such an ac- 

 tion, were it entered upon, would carry with it the stain of an injustice ; 

 and Mr. Walker's very considerable and at times valuable entomologi- 

 cal labors be an entire loss toscience. The danger also in establishing 

 such a precedent must not be forgotten. It is true there is a class of 

 descriptions, which are embodied in these "Lists," which can hardly 

 fail to prove an insurmountable obstruction in the way of the progress 

 of the science for whose furtherance they were mistakenly written, 

 unless their existence be ignored. We refer to those drawn up by 

 Mr. Walker from specimens contained in private Collections in Eng- 

 land ; to such typical specimens the student can have access but by 

 acts of extraordinary courtesy on the part of their different possessors, 

 [mperfectly described for the greatest part, such types can add but 

 little real value to the Collections in which they are contained, while 

 to prevent these species from. remaining unknown, or at best descending 

 to posterity an unfailing source of unprofitable discussion and litiga- 

 tion, it would seem a proper action on the part of the owners of such 

 specimens, were they to deposit the same as a special Collection in the 

 British Museum, so that by actual comparison and examination it may 

 be definitely ascertained what the species are. 



The principal value of the British Museum " Lists," at least so far 

 as those treating of Lepidoptera are concerned, lies in the immense 

 labor which Mr. Walker has bestowed upon the compilation of the 

 synonymy of the previously publishei species and (if this merit be 

 not counterbalanced by the defective manner in which that material 

 is treated which was regarded by the author as new) in the endeavor 

 to arrange systematically in a single work all the species known to 

 science up to that time and belonging to the Groups and Families 

 therein treated. 



Unfortunately a comparison of Mr. Walker's material with his work 

 shows, that we can accept none of his conclusions without verification 

 and that but few can stand such a test. In this way the light which 

 such a work would naturally shed upon the interesting subject of 

 generic representation is entirely lost, since Mr. Walker's generic 

 determinations are as a rule unreliable in the Moths. It is not that 

 Mr. Walker's ideas as to generic values can be made a matter of com- 

 parative discussion, or that a reasonable latitude is not allowed in a 

 subject which ia very far from being one of agreement among natu- 



