The lonm nmuim: 



A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 150. SEPTEMBER 23rd, 1882. Vol. 3. 



TOO LATE. 



^ ^ T was just too late for tlie species 

 -L I promised you, it was quite 

 over when I got to the locality. There 

 was a worn specimen or two left, but 

 none worth setting. I had intended 

 going for it about a fortnight before, 

 but one thing and another seemed to 

 come in the way, and but for my 

 promise to you I would not have gone 

 at all, for I felt sure there would be 

 few, if any left on the wing/^ So 

 writes a correspondent, and how many 

 more could say the same thing? A 

 day seemed of no consequence, and we 

 put off till to-morrow ; to-morrow was 

 an unsuitable day ; the third day we 

 really could not go; the fourth it 

 rained ; on the fifth we had promised 

 to go elsewhere, and as we had a 

 companion we could not get off the 

 engagement. And so on day after day, 

 till we could look back and see that 

 the first day was really the only chance 

 we had. In Entomology, as in other 

 branches of Natural History, it is as 

 the old Ballad says — 



" He that will not when he may, 

 When he would, he shall have nay." 



We did not avail ourselves of the 

 chance we had, and another never came. 

 Look back, you Young Naturalists 

 over the past season. It has been but 

 a bad one on the whole. Insects have 

 been scarce, many have not been seen 

 at all, but as you look over your record 

 for the last few months, how many of 

 you must admit, that bad as the season 

 has been, you have made it very much 

 worse by putting off till the morrow 

 that never came, a capture that ought 

 to have been made to-day. It was a 

 forward season, and in some respects 

 a curious one, for so far as our own 

 experience goes, we found one species 

 out rather earlier than usual, and 

 another rather later, and tliis anomaly 

 obtained all through the summer, on 

 the whole however, insects were true 

 to time, and if they were less abundant 

 than usual, that was all the more 

 reason why we should look after the 

 few there were, in extra good time. It 

 is too late now. All the good reso- 

 lutions in the world would not give 

 back the missed opportunities of 

 the past months of spring and summer. 

 It is easy to look back on the past with 



