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A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 50. OCTOBER 9th, 1880. Vol. 1. 



AT HOME. 



ON our back page is a notice that 

 Mr. S. L. Masley, will he " At 

 Home" every Saturday afternoon or 

 ev( ning, when he will be glad to name 

 specimens, and give any other assistance 

 to )eginners, or to show his collections. 

 The number of naturalists that are 

 anxious for such assistance may be 

 gathered from the fact that on the day 

 when this notice first appeared, Mr. 

 Mosley had more than a dozen visitors, 

 an 1 named over one hundred specimens. 

 We believe "At Homes'' were first 

 begun by the late Charles James 

 Stephens, about forty years ago, and 

 from that time to the present, some 

 en omologist or other has kept up the 

 sy item. Mr. Stainton commenced 

 "At Homes" some thirty years ago, 

 be bre the death of Mr. Stephens, and 

 after his death Mr Stainton came into 

 po ^session of his Library, to which visi- 

 tors were given access. More recently 

 and up to the time of his death Mr. New- 

 m- mi gave invitations to Entomologists to 

 meet him "At Home," at Peckham, at 

 stated dates. While residents in, or 

 visitors to the metropolis have thus been 

 privileged, there has been no such help 



offered to beginners in the provinces, and 

 Mr, Mosley 's announcement is, we be- 

 lieve, the first out of London . The need of 

 such aid has long been felt, and the 

 editor of Science Gossip recently 

 published alist of" Assistant Naturalists" 

 who, residing in all parts of the country, 

 and having made various branches of 

 Natural History their special study, 

 have expressed their willingness to aid 

 beginners, by letter or otherwise. No 

 doubt some have taken advantage of 

 this list to obtain information they 

 required, but we have reason to believe 

 that it has not been very largely used. 

 Our own offer to name specimens sent 

 to us for the purpose, has been 

 made use of, but not to any great 

 extent. In sending insects for 

 instance, boxes must be used, they 

 must be carefully packed, and twice 

 risked through the post, and after all 

 this risk and trouble, only the baldest 

 information is given . In a few minutes 

 conversation with an Entomologist, 

 more knowledge can be imparted, the 

 special characteristics by which the 

 species is known can be pointed out, 

 those most closely allied can be 

 shown and attention called to the 



