Tue ZooLocist—DxcemseEr, 1872. $825 
comprehended in the following formula :—‘ Seeing that all our botanists 
include the Channel Islands in the British Flora, ought we, or ought we 
not, to include them in our British Fauna.” My own opinion has not been 
very strongly in favour of either course; but I have felt a leaning towards a 
uniformity of practice, a leaning which has increased, and has become more 
decided with each successive expression of opinion, until Mr. Birchall, the 
last in order of time, settles the matter to my entire satisfaction, and I am 
fully prepared to include the Channel Islands in the British Fauna, or more 
correctly speaking, in the Fauna of the United Kingdom. If it be the case 
that Agrotis Ashworthii is the English form of Agrotis candelisequa, Agrotis 
lunigera of Agrotis Trux, Hadena assimilis of Crymodes exulis, and Acronycta 
Myrice of Acronycta Euphorbie, how important is it that we should at 
once call them by their correct names, nor longer pander to our insular vanity 
by giving them insular names! Should the extension of our Fauna to the 
Channel Islands induce this single good result, should it induce our ento- 
mologists to adopt a uniform nomenclature, that alone would be a sufficient 
reason for adopting the course suggested. But there is another good that is 
certain to result. We have a multitude of young entomologists who possess 
abundant means, and who are anxious to obtain species that they have failed 
to capture on English soil. I will particularly mention two, Daplidice and 
Lathonia: they willingly give twenty-five or thirty shillings apiece for 
specimens of either of these, provided the dealer will assert that they are 
“ British”; and there are swarms of dealers who will gladly supply any 
number of specimens on the required terms and conditions. I cannot take 
upon myself to read a moral lecture to the impostors or the dupes: I fancy 
it would be hard to resist the temptation of selling copies of the ‘ Zoologist’ 
at two pounds each if there were buyers foolish enough to give such a price, 
even supposing I were disposed to assert there were some fancied superiority 
in the coveted copy: I italicise the word fancied, because there is no real 
difference between one copy and another of the ‘ Zoologist,’ or between 
English and European specimens of the butterflies in question. Let us sup- 
pose Guernsey Daplidices, by the amended usage, become British. Why next 
year I should receive the following note from Mr. Birchall himself :—‘ How 
are you off for Daplidice? I have taken a few hundreds in Guernsey this 
summer, and will send you a box-full for distribution on your Friday evenings 
if you like; and, by the way, I have lots of Lathonias, if you care for them ; 
also a score or two of D. Euphorbie. How many shall I send of each?” What 
would be the effect on the dealers, the buyers and the sellers? A bombshell 
bursting among them could not produce greater consternation. After the first 
panic, reducing the quotation of Daplidices and Lathonias to zero, they would 
probably look upwards, and finally settle at threepence or sixpence each. 
The little island of Heligoland is introduced by Mr. Birchall as a kind of 
stumbling-block in the way of such an arrangement: by all meaus let us 
SECOND SERIES—VOL. VII. 3M 
