36 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC INSECTS 



men, and to benefit by their knowledge. They give 

 us the key to what has been found out and set down 

 in books by many generations of observers. But the 

 student of Natural History or Anatomy will not, as 

 a rule, be even moderately good in naming. He will, 

 it is to be hoped, be able to place an Insect approxi- 

 mately in its right place, but he will not carry generic 

 and specific characters in his head. If it is the 

 Natural History of Insects which attracts him, he 

 will do well not to seek to add all the attainments of 

 the Entomologist. The collection that he should 

 possess will not be extensive or showy. He will use 

 up his specimens to see how they are made ; he 

 will have no time for the niceties of the professed 

 collector. 



I hope it will not be too discouraging if I add that 

 if he is bent upon increasing knowledge he will work 

 slowly, and will cover little ground. It takes a man 

 who has other occupations to mind about a year to 

 get a fair notion of the structure and mode of life of 

 a new Insect. But to verify the descriptions of good 

 observers, and so to be guided over the ground, is of 

 course a far more rapid business, and this is enough 

 for most of us. Still we do not taste the full delight 

 of Natural History unless we attempt to walk where 

 no one has walked before. 



It is necessary to warn the beginner that unless he 

 has that sure perception of truth and error which 

 belongs to very few among men, he will continually 

 make mistakes, and very humiliating these mistakes 

 are, especially when they have been published with 

 full confidence. There is no department of human 



