THE WORKING-MAN NATURALIST 135 



of a bateleur eagle, caged near his front door; in the 

 window was a bleached but historical specimen of a Green- 

 land falcon. His specimens were unlabelled, and he 

 either could not or would not tell us whence they came ; 

 few of these old collections ever are labelled with date and 

 locality; the owner prided himself that he knew all about 

 them, and forgot that a day would come when his word 

 would be no longer available. Then he passed, and the 

 value of the collections, many of them invaluable, passed 

 also ; friends and relatives try to realise upon the hoarded 

 goods, but the scientist refuses to purchase. All the 

 labour has been in vain; for lack of a little care, a note- 

 book, or a catalogue, the specimens become so much 

 lumber. The house was crammed with natural history 

 objects, but the glass cases were cracked and broken ; 

 dust and dirt, moth and mite, had found their way 

 through many crevices ; the whole place, the man himself, 

 showed the waste of years. A life and a life work prac- 

 tically wasted ! 



The objection to stating localities was not always 

 laziness, but was the result of the competitive system; 

 these men dared not reveal where they had found their 

 good specimens, for fear that their associates would also 

 find them and so lessen their fictitious value. It had its 

 value for the species; it has its value to us to-day. One 

 or two instead of a score or more raided the locality; many 

 plants and insects would long since have vanished had 

 their habitat been disclosed. Very many years ago the 

 entomological world was astonished by the discovery of 

 a new moth near Manchester; the finder had not one 

 or two, but many specimens. He refused to disclose the 

 source of supply, and gloated over the envy of his less 

 fortunate companions. Time went on, and drink and 

 consequent poverty induced him to part with two or three 

 specimens, one to be figured in Curtis's " Entomology." 



19 



