THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 
bo 
something may be done for all who care for insects, without filling out 
pages too much with technicalities, and without losing sight of all 
additions to our knowledge by becoming simply “ popular.” To steer a 
suitable course between the Scylla of abstruse science on the one side, 
and the Charybdis of mere ‘‘ popularity” on the other, is no easy task, 
and we fear has not yet been achieved by us. We hope, however, in the 
: forthcoming volume to do a little better in this respect, and we look 
forward to a continuance of friendly aid from our correspondents m 
various quarters to enable us to overcome the difficulty. As a first step 
towards improvement we propose to present to our readers a series of 
illustrated papers on the common Butterflies of North America—with 
special reference to those found in Canada. We hope that we shall thus 
be enabled in time to furnish beginners in Entomology with a hand book 
that will enable them easily to identify any common butterfly and to 
ascertain where and when it may be found, what its larva feeds upon, and 
such other useful information as may be gathered into a short space. 
Owing to the difficulty there is in obtaining really satisfactory wood cuts of 
insects, and the time that is required for their production, we shall not be 
able to take up the different species of Butterflies in any systematic order, 
but only as we are able to obtain the necessary materials. We shall be 
very thankful, indeed, for assistance from our readers in this department ; 
almost every one can help us with lists of species observed in his own 
neighborhood, or with notes on their time of appearance and disappear- 
ance, number of broods, larval habits, etc., etc. 
The “Hints to Fruit Growers” that have been afforded by one of 
our Editorial Staff—Mr. Saunders—will be continued with greater 
frequency during thé coming year; we are glad to learn from various 
sources that those already published have proved of much value to our 
horticultural readers. 
As a further improvement, we should be pleased to receive corres- 
pondence from our readers upon general Entomological subjects of the 
day ; for instance, at the present moment, upon the vexed, and we may 
surely say vexatious, question of nomenclature. 
It will be a relief, no doubt, to the majority of our readers to learn 
that the reprint of Kirby’s Jzsects of the Northern Parts of British 
America is now fast approaching completion, and will cease ere long to 
distress them with its constant recurrence. The whole will, when finished, 
be made up into a separate volume and be sold at a moderate price. We 
have no doubt that it will prove of much value to those who are unable 
