MODE OF COLLECTING. 63 



trouser-legs and coat-sleeves tightly about your ankles and 

 wrists, and turn up the stones. If the objects of your search are 

 to be had, they will be found on the under surface of the stone, 

 or beneath it. If not successful with one stone, or one nest, try 

 another, and another, and still another. In the search after 

 rarities, patience is indispensable, for not more than one nest in 

 twenty contains beetles ; and in the case of special rarities, the 

 collector may have to wait for years before his eyes are gladdened 

 by the sight of the long-desired prize. 



If any reader should fancy he could improve upon this 

 " patient " system by opening tip the Ants' nests, and prying 

 narrowly into their recesses, let him beware. In the first place, 

 the Ants themselves would resent this procedure in a fashion 

 not comfortable to the collector; and, in the second place, so 

 great would be the ire of the whole brotherhood of beetle- 

 catchers, that the innovator, if detected in the act, would be in 

 danger of a ducking in the nearest horsepond. The truth is, 

 that by upsetting the Ants' nests, the Ants themselves are 

 destroyed, and all possibility of future profit from them taken 

 away. It is like killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. In 

 France, moreover, this wanton destruction of Ants' nests is now 

 strictly prohibited for another reason. The proprietors of woods, 

 and others interested in the preservation of game, discovered 

 that the reckless proceedings of the entomologists threatened 

 speedily to extirpate the Ants, and thus to deprive the young 

 pheasants and othei game birds of their chief source of subsist- 

 ence. On this account, an interdict has been laid upon all 

 further entomological havoc. Let all collectors, therefore, either 

 adopt the " patient " and " laborious " system described above, or 

 leave the Ants'-nest Beetles alone. 



The great body of the collectors of insects in this country give 

 their attention more or less exclusively to the single order 

 Lepidoptem. The Butterflies and Moths are so much more 

 gaily coloured than most other insects, and make such an attrac- 

 tive display in the drawers of a cabinet, that it is no wonder 

 they hold the first place in popular favour. In the literature of 

 entomology, too, these insects hold the first rank ; the splendid 

 works that are devoted to their illustration more than eclipsing 

 all that are published on all the other orders put together. The 

 grandest book of this sort yet published is Dr. Herrich-Schaffer's 



