ia8 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries. 



of the left-hand numbers ; while at the same time they may be 

 turned over like the leaves of a book to find the sheet required, 

 after the general index of Bell and Yarrell has been first con- 

 sulted to give the right number. If a page gets damaged by 

 mistakes or an accident it can easily be re-copied without 

 spoiling the look of the whole series of notes, as is too often 

 the case if a book is used. It is also much easier to w.nte on 

 sheets than in a book. A more simple way than using any 

 author's order and the index to his book is to keep the notes 

 in alphabetical order. There is only one danger in doing this. 

 The nomenclature of species is so uncertain and various in 

 different authors, that cross-references have to be added for all 

 the commoner scientific names. If this is not done with great 

 care by young naturalists, notes on the same species will be 

 scattered under different scientific names throughout his whole 

 collection. But the alphabetical order has one great advantage; 

 notes on every department can be kept together in one long 

 series. When the sheets may be reckoned by thousands, as in 

 our own case, it becomes the only practical way. 



A friend of the cynical order, who knows his own foibles as 

 well as he sees other men's, suggested that note paper is a 

 handy size for illustrations, and pointed out how they enrich 

 any collection of notes. He enclosed one as a specimen of 

 what these should be like a sketch of a bird shot with an 

 ounce of water instead of lead. He maintained he had never 

 heard of water-shooting till we told him how to proceed. 

 Whether in his hands it has been successful in saving damage 

 to the plumage of delicate birds we cannot say, as his cartoon 

 is the last communication we have had on the subject. 



In another paper we purpose to make a selection from the 

 notes of a North Lincolnshire naturalist to illustrate how 

 interesting these casual jottings, which only take a few minutes 

 to carefully observe and record, become as facts accumulate in 

 the passage of years. 



