3728 Natural-History Collectors. 



hunt and fish, and not be more than 4s. or 5s. a-day expense altoge- 

 ther. You will see a pill-box with curious small Coleoptera &c." 



"Santarem, May 17, 1852. — The vessel which takes this leaves to- 

 morrow, so I have no time to put up another box of insects. It is 

 eight days since my collection left here, with copious letters and notes, 

 which will be answers to your letters of December last ; I now reply 

 to yours of January 31. Santarem is not a good locality for Diurnes, 

 not being surrounded by virgin forest : in the same period that I have 

 been here, I could have done better in this family at Ega, as I have 

 no doubt I did not accomplish a fourth part of what is to be done on 

 the Upper Amazons, it is so productive a country. I am now rearing 

 many Lepidoptera, but have failed in drawing and preserving many 

 larvae. In reference to the Mysceliae being the females of Epicalia, 

 there are in my private collection of these Epicaliae alone three or four 

 species thus paired, some bagged in copuld, leaving no mistake about 

 it. Having my books &c, I am now ready to be off to the Tapajos, 

 and long to get to a good locality for butterflies again." * 



" Santarem, June 4, 1852. — I now forward the last box that I shall 

 send from this place ; my private collection, consisting of single spe- 

 cimens, amounts to about 800 species : as they keep well, and I wish 

 to compare them with the Tapajos species, I shall not send these at 

 present. The minute Coleoptera in pill-boxes will not keep in this 

 climate ; the plan won't answer ; although I dry them in the sun for 

 a week before boxing, they are subject to mould and mites. 1 now 

 see by the books sent, how little is known of Diurnes, &c. Besides 

 the notes sent, I find I can add a great deal of information from me- 

 mory ; thus you see it is important that I should find my collection 

 complete, with all the Nos. attached, when I return. I have now ta- 

 ken, with this pair of hands, 1000 species of butterflies ! I have now 

 about 50 specimens of small reptiles, about 30 of woods and medi- 

 cines, 50 shells, &c. : the reptiles will not yet make a parcel worth 

 sending ; the woods &c. are waiting for the flowers ; and the shells 

 (species already sent) I keep until I can fill a box equal in size to the 

 insect-box, for the convenience of packing. I am only sorry not to 

 have the means of taking heights of mountains, position of rivers, &c. 

 I am likely to meet with ; for the thermometers, barometers, quad- 

 rants, theodolites, and tables of formulae which are necessary, are all 

 quite beyond the means of a poor man like myself. What I have 

 found very useful, are the continental annual reports on Zoology, 



