MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 823 



•me on this point I need say nothing further beyond the fact that I am 

 prepared to back my opinion, and I hope in any case I have said enough to 

 prove that though possibly an "incompetent" I am certainly not an "over- 

 zealous " reformer. 



I do not think I need say much in reply to the remainder of his paper in 

 which he suggests, alternative methods of setting and so forth. As I pointed 

 out in my paper it will take the young collector a long time and much patient 

 experience before he will be able to set any insect well and not having any 

 experience of Colonel Mander's method I cannot say whether he would learn 

 quicker in that way than mine. The chief superiority so far as I can gather 

 which he claims for his method is that it insures the insects being all set at the 

 same height on the pin. I do not think this is necessarily assured unless the 

 setter has already acquired some skill, in which case he will be able to achieve 

 the same result by the method I described. 



As to collecting methods, the efficacy of a glass-bottomed box depends of 

 course on its size with reference to the insect it is expected to contain. I have 

 personally never had any difficulty with a Charaxes nor with an Ornithopteron. 

 It is of course not necessary to put an Ornithopteron into the box with its wings 

 expanded. 



Occasions will arise no doubt when a collector will come across an insect of 

 a larger size than he had expected or was looking for and for which conse- 

 quently he might have no suitable box with him. In such cases he may have 

 to pinch it and pin it to the inside of his topi. 



Personally I would rather run the risk of this than permanently encumber 

 myself with a collecting box. 



September 1906. L. C. H. YOUNG.] 



In a communication I lately made to the Society regarding Mr. Young's 

 paper "First hints on collecting butterflies " I suggested that a* Committee of 

 Members should be formed to revise the nomenclature of our Indian butter- 

 flies, taking the works of Moore, de Niceville and Bingham, as the basis for 

 their labours. I desire to withdraw this suggestion. 



I have since received the " Fauna of British India," Butterflies, Vol. I., 



Bingham, and if the subsequent volumes attain the high scientific position of 



the first, and there is no reason to suppose they will not, it needs no suggestion 



of mine to make this work the standard for our nomenclature. 



N. MANDERS, Lt.-Col., r.a.m.c. 

 Mauritius, September 15th, 1906. 



No. XIII— REDUCTION IN THE SPECIES OF THE GENUS 



POL YOD0NT0PHIS. 



Suppression of P. svbpunctatus. 



A few weeks ago I sent to the British Museum a snake of the genus Polyo. 

 dontophis I found preserved in the Fyzabad Museum which perplexed me, com- 

 bining as it did the characters of P. subpunctatus and Sagittarius. The main 



