THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



131 



cases without any plinth or projecting mouldings at the sides, so that they can 

 be placed one on the other or by the side of each other, without loss of room ; 

 or should you find that you have not room for a particular group, which is 

 sure to be the case as the collection proceeds, unless all the drawers are exactly 

 alike, and consequently interchangeable, you must rearrange the whole collec- 

 tion, and this with a thirty-drawer cabinet is a very long and tiresome job. An 

 entomologist whom I happen to know, and who has a very large collection of 

 beetles, both British and Foreign, and to whom cost is not a consideration, 

 has abandoned the use of cabinets in favour of boxes such as I have described, 

 and for the very reasons I have been trying to explain. 



With a view to assisting his young friends, the Editor has taken the 

 trouble to obtain some boxes, which he will be pleased to send at 4/6 each 

 to any one who may communicate with him. I have seen a sample of these 

 boxes, and I think they are in every way well suited for the purpose and 

 thoroughly reliable. 



Possibly some, notwithstanding all I have said will still choose a cabinet ; 

 and I suspect this will be so because it is a more imposing and showy look- 

 ing piece of furniture, which may be placed in the drawing-room, whereas 

 boxes on shelves would hardly be considered fit to be located in such an 

 apartment. For the assistance of these collectors there is a club, I believe, 

 already in existence, by joining which they may obtain a really good cabinet, 

 by the weekly payment of a small sum. The plan of working this club is, 

 I understand, as follows : — The club will consist of any number of members, 

 the payments to be 2/6 per week for 120 weeks. As soon as the subscriptions 

 paid amount to a total of £15, a cabinet of this value is to be purchased ; a 

 ballot will then be taken and the cabinet sent to the winner immediately, but 

 although it is placed in his possession it does not become his property, but is 

 to be vested in trustees, who will have legal power to re-obtain possession of 

 it if the weekly subscriptions are not punctually and regularly paid, until the 

 whole of the 120 subscriptions are paid, when it will become the property of 

 the subscriber absolutely. Such are the outlines of the rules and methods 

 of working this club, but if any one should be desirous of joining it, or of 

 obtaining further information, he had better at once communicate with the 

 Editor. 



In conclusion I should like to impress on young collectors the importance 

 of well weighing the various reasons I have advanced in favour of boxes, as I 

 feel sure if they do so they will decide to use boxes, and they cannot in the 

 first instance do better than get one from the Editor which will do to begin 

 with, and then they may continue adding box after box as they succeed in 

 collecting the insects, until an interesting and valuable collection is the result, 



