SOME HINTS ON NATURAL HISTORY SPECIMENS. 101 
such descriptions of a species and its life history, that the defects and 
omissions in it often become apparent. 
We have much still to learn of even our commonest animals, both vertebrate 
and invertebrate,and plants, not only by the additions of many important 
details, concerning those already recognized and described, but also in the 
direction of hitherto unknown species, and that something towards filling 
these gaps may be contributed by almost any one who will take the trouble 
to give a helping hand, has, time after time, been proved by the work of our 
members, who,in a number of instances, have only.developed the taste for 
such research comparatively late in life, and who had previously had no special 
training in the subjects that they turned their attention to, 
Nearly every one sometime or other in his life experiences a fascination for 
forming a collection of some kind, whether it be butterflies, birds’ eggs, postage- 
stamps, or old coins, prints or pottery. Nor is this inclination peculiar to 
certain nations, for it is common, | believe, to all the races of the world in 
some form or another, and we may too, perhaps, even trace it in the habit of 
the Bower-birds of having their little museum of stones, shells, &c., which are . 
arranged about the curious ‘bowers’ that they build, apparently, for their 
recreation, This desire to make a collection generally attracts the schoolboy 
in some form, and, as he has not the facilities for satisfying it in other wa ys, 
his collection generally takes the shape of butterflies, birds’ eggs, or stamps. In 
many instances it is only a passing phase, especially as regards objects of 
Natural History, for his opportunities of pursuing it are often few when he 
leaves school and is tied down to work in some large town with only a fort- 
night or a month’s holiday a year, When the phase is resuscitated or develop- 
ed later in life it more generally takes the form of a collection of objects of 
Art, and although these are in most cases obtamed by purchase, a collector 
often devotes a large amount of time and trouble in searching for and obtain- 
ing his treasures. This devotion of time and trouble is often, it would appear, 
wanting in the man who still retains from his boyhood a fancy for the study 
of Natural History, and although he may notice anything that strikes him as 
peculiar and out of the common among the birds and beasts and insects 
around his bungalow or when out on his shooting trips, and occasionally com- 
municates the same for publication in the very interesting “ Miscellaneous 
Notes” of our journal, he seldom takes the trouble to start a collection of any 
kind, even though be may to some extent realize the special opportunities that 
surround him, 
As the late Sir William Flower wrote: “ The value of all knowledge depends 
“a great deal upon the amount of labour and time spent in acquiring it, The 
“easy method of which we make too much boast in the present day—hand- 
“ books, pictures, lectures, well-arranged public museums, & c.—have their draw- 
“ backs and snares as well as their advantages, They are all helps if properly 
“used, but they will not supersede, and nothing will ever supersede, the down- 
