50 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society Vol. XI 



of locomotion but tell of wheels, tires and treadles, about which 

 he " knows it all." Yet, at heart I really believe that — to parody 

 rather irreverently lines of a great poet — he would say from his 

 heart 



Better beetles far of Europe 



Than a cycle of Cathay. 



I have a delightful little book called " Days Afield." It deals 

 with nature, but not entomological nature only, tells of the woods 

 and streams and fields of that island of which the author is the 

 Gilbert White of Selborne memory. He could not, being what 

 he is, leave out all hint of butterfly, beetle, bug, — but there is 

 more of bird and blossom than of insects. The book was written 

 several years ago ; perhaps its author would not, could not now, 

 be so conservative ; could not banish to silence from his pages the 

 shrilling of the cicada, the jarring of the "jar-fly." 



Several English entomologists have written books on subjects 

 quite apart from the branch of natural history to which their 

 authors were devoted, indeed apart from natural history itself. 

 One, at least, wrote poetry, odes, sonnets, even hymns, in which 

 not a cricket chirped, bee hummed, fly buzzed, or beetle stridu- 

 lated. Few who knew and sympathized with him as an en- 

 tomologist dreamed of his being a poet, and those who read and 

 loved his verse had little knowledge of his taste for "bee and 

 moth and flying thing." Grote, so well known as a student of 

 lepidoptera, was also a poet, writing pleasing and rhythmical 

 verse. Many years ago, in the very earliest days of the New 

 York Entomological Society, I took with me to one of its meet- 

 ings, a guest staying at my home. It was Charles Dudley Warner, 

 just then at the height of his fame as a delightful writer of essays, 

 a charming teller of stories. I introduced my distinguished 

 friend to one or two of the members before the meeting opened 

 and presently one of them drew me aside and asked the visitors's 

 name as he had not caught it. When I repeated it with pardon- 

 able pride the eager entomologist said, " Yes, of course I've heard 

 his name but forget his line. Is it coleoptera ? " Poor Mr. 

 Warner ! It was a lesson to him — for you may be sure I made 

 the most of it after the meeting — and I can hear him now say, as 

 he said then with his whimsical smile, " There's a man who would 



