48 



witli twelve species, these few insects are so exhaustively 

 treated, and on such a wide basis, that no student of the 

 Lepidoptera, whether his study be general or specialised, can 

 afford to be without a reference work of such marvellous 

 utility. A comprehensive work such as this, however, has 

 its thorn as well as the rose. When it reaches the young 

 and aspiring entomologist, it may for a time cool his ardour. 

 He may feel that he has neither the time nor, if he be modest, 

 the capacity to attempt anything approaching the same com- 

 pass. Let the aspirant, however, not be discouraged, but let 

 him continue his observations in the lines he has chosen, and 

 sooner or later he will discover new facts or will be able to 

 confirm doubtful ones. When he has in this way added 

 something to knowledge, let him record it as soon as possible, 

 that others may have the new light, however feeble, thrown 

 on their work. For from the accumulation of notes and 

 records of observations arises the material out of which the 

 more comprehensive scientific works are largely composed. 



Perhaps I may here take the opportunity without being 

 considered presumptuous, to remind the older as well as the 

 younger entomologists that it is really their duty to record 

 as soon as practicable any fresh truth that they have dis- 

 covered. We all know there are several entomologists of 

 great experience who are still more or less active in the field, 

 but whose pen, unfortunately for their brethren, is almost 

 idle, and we can, alas ! recall the names of many, now no 

 longer among us, whose great knowledge, never published, 

 has almost entirely passed away with them. 



The subject I desire to bring before your notice to-night is 

 one that, I believe, has not been brought forward at this 

 Society on any previous occasion. I wish to call your atten- 

 tion to the joy of animal existence ; I want to emphasise the 

 triumph of animal life. Of course by this I do not allude to 

 mere animal existence, to the dull life of a beast, as exempli- 

 fied by the life, for instance, of a prize pig, that spends all 

 its time either in sleeping or eating. Such an existence is 

 certainly without care, but as surely without joy. What I 

 do mean is the joy of the wild life, of the life that the free 

 creatures of the field and forest lead when left to themselves, 

 uninterfered with by the hand of man. 



It is many years ago since the first idea of this fact dawned 

 upon me ; but since that time my observations have brought 

 it home to me again and again, so that for some years now it 

 has been with me a settled conviction. 



As soon as I became aware of this fact I altered my method 



