The YOtINC HATOBAMST : 



A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 88. JULY 16th, 1881. Vol. 2, 



SUGARING. 



TWO paragraphs that have recently 

 appeared in our columns recal to 

 mind an old controversy on the Laivs of 

 Sugaring in the pages of the " Intelli- 

 gencer." Enquiries also have been made 

 more than once on the subject, and some 

 correspondents seem to think there must 

 surely be some laws for the purpose of 

 regulating the doings of the intoxicator 

 of insects, as there is for those who 

 intoxicate human beings. But we fear 

 if there were laws for sugarers, they 

 would not be much more successful in 

 their operation than the others to which 

 we refer. No doubt it is very discour- 

 aging for the collector to find, after a 

 long journey to the ground he purposes 

 to occupy, that some one else has been 

 before him, and that " his trees " are 

 already bedaubed with the attractive 

 sweets. We doubt, however, whether 

 any action would " lie " against the first 

 occupant, and in face of the maxim that 

 " possession is nine points in law," we 

 certainly would not be disposed to give 

 up our sugar to any later comer. Still 

 it is worth considering whether it would 

 not be better to admit our dilatory friend 

 to a share of what was going, when we 

 were in the field before him, if for no 



better reason than that he might be 

 before us another time. It is a curious 

 and puzzling fact, that gentlemen, who 

 will give away valuable insects without 

 thought of return, even to those who are 

 perfect strangers to them, will appear 

 sometimes to be exceedingly selfish in 

 their desire to obtain those very insects 

 that they will afterwards part with so 

 willingly. Where collectors are few, 

 and trees many, it will never occur that 

 one will have his journey in vain because 

 he came late. There will always be 

 some trees to spare for him. But there are 

 some places, where trees are few and 

 collectors numerous; some places indeed, 

 there are where there are no trees at all, 

 and unless some good feeling, or good 

 understanding prevails, there is pretty 

 sure to be the opposite. The writer 

 was in the habit of sugaring for years 

 on a piece of ground where there were 

 no trees, and nothing but a fence of 

 posts and rails on the railway side, 

 where sugar could be applied. Moths 

 were abundant, and three collectors at 

 least found this the most convenient 

 ground for their purpose. By mutual 

 understanding, one took one side of the 

 railway, and another the other; then 

 beyond a certain limit a third had unin- 



