November 1889.] 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



217 



which they grubbed up and utterly destroyed every nest, having 

 brought my favourite pursuit to a sudden, and, I must admit, some- 

 what unlooked-for termination. In publishing my Ants' Nest paper 

 in last year's Annual, I was actuated by the desire of sharing with 

 others the pleasure and profit which I had culled in a path previously 

 untrodden in this country, little expecting that sordid amor habendi, 

 rampant and strong as I well knew it to be in the majority of 

 collectors, would have led them to exclude me henceforth from all 

 participation in the dainty dish which I had set before them. And 

 what has science gained at [their] hands ? Have they contri- 

 buted one solitary fact to our store, thrown one dim ray of light on 

 the mysterious relationship between the ant and its beetle guest ? 

 Science to these men is a mere outward garb, a sort of west-end 

 paletot, which imparts an air of respectability to the wearers, and to 

 their sordid selfish acts the semblance of scientific research," (Annual, 



1858.) 



Mr. Cox does not pretend to deal in a precise manner with this 

 subject in his Handbook, * but rather leaves the student to his own 

 resources ; although he gives a general direction in the Introduction 

 " respecting the time and place in which beetles should be looked for ; 

 the time is always, and the place is everywhere. In the spring a reversed 

 umbrella or large net should be held beneath hedges or trees while 

 they are beaten with a stick ; in summer, a canvas or a strong linen 

 net should be swept over long grass, flowers, &c. ; in the autumn, 

 fungi pulled to pieces over a sheet of brown paper, yield a good crop ; 

 while in the winter, moss, dead leaves, &c, can be shaken into a bag 

 and the contents examined at leisure.. The most productive times 

 are the spring, early summer, and autumn ; while as regards place, a 

 clay soil is considered unfavourable, but chalk and sand are accounted 

 very good. In sand-pits, with straight cut sides, many good species 

 often occur ; rough, undisturbed ground is always better than culti- 



* Since August issue of the Young Naturalist, I have received some communications 

 respecting my remarks on Mr. Cox's work ; my reason for saying that it was "un- 

 rivalled" was simply this — there is no other completed British Handbook in existence. 

 Canon Fowler's is certainly in progress, but not yet finished ; therefore Mr. 

 Cox's book is still " unrivalled," and as such is " pre-eminent." It may be as well 

 here to refer to Mr. Stainton's words on the subject in 1857 : — " At the present day 

 the collectors of beetles in this country want a clever man to write them a Manual of 

 British Beetles; and whether we hunt high or low amongst our Coleopterists, the 

 fitting man cannot be found. Surely this state of things will not last ! " It lasted 

 until 1874. The circumstances of the case, I think, seem to warrant the expressions 

 used, 



