294 



THE YOUNG NATUBALIST. 



they are taken away, lest they reveal 

 the place to some one passing. 



In ten years this gentleman has a fine 

 collection, rich in rare species, rendering 

 him the envy of a chance visitor who 

 calls in to look over his drawers. Ask 

 him about the fauna of his district, and 

 you are astonished that one who has his 

 cabinet so well filled knows so little of 

 the species that occur in his own 

 neighbourhood. He can tell you where 

 so and so used to be taken. He 

 captured and bred a great many some 

 years ago. Yes, he has a duplicate 

 or two yet, he believes, but he wants 

 a good exchange for them, they are 

 so very rare now. They have not 

 been taken about there for a long 

 time. No, he really does not know if 

 that is found near. It is only priced 

 fourpence in Meek's list, and he never 

 cared to take common things. It was 

 no more trouble to take a rarity when 

 you knew where to get it, and he could 

 get several series of those common 

 sorts for a single rarity. Ask about 

 another species, again he " doesn't 

 know," and you soon find he knows 

 nothing at all. He has worked hard 

 for one or two good things, and with 

 good bargaining and some unscrupu- 

 lousness, he has filled his drawers with 

 the proceeds, but as to any knowledge 

 he has none. Shreweder even than the 

 " Young Barnes " of old, he has not 

 taken any common things " in case they 

 should become rare some day." His 

 whole energy has been given to the 

 acquisition of a long series of a few rare 



insects that once rendered famous the 

 locality in which he resides. The young 

 collectors round about look up to him 

 as an authority it is true, though they 

 admit he never gives them anything, 

 and never tells them very much, but his 

 collection is so good that it gives him 

 an amount of prestige difficult to over- 

 come. 



In twenty years he has ceased to be 

 counted as an Entomologist. When there 

 were no more good species to extermin- 

 ate, his interest in collecting ceased. 

 His remaining duplicates, for he has 

 some yet, are old looking and terribly 

 mite-eaten, and no one cares to exchange 

 with him. Indeed there are not many 

 species that he wants, and he has been 

 found out or suspected by most of his 

 old correspondents. His drawers are 

 rarely opened, and the mites revel in 

 darkness undisturbed. Beyond the mere 

 acquisition of specimens he never had a 

 desire. He went to work in the most 

 business like way to make a collection. 

 If he had gone to a dealer's and pur- 

 chased his specimens he could not have 

 known less of the life history, the habits, 

 &c, of most of them. To the title of 

 Naturalist he never had a shadow of 

 claim. To that of Collector he had but 

 very little, and those who have met such 

 a character will agree that he quite 

 deserves to be classed under another 

 genus. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



All communications to be sent to J. E. Eobson, Bellerby 

 Terrace, West Hartlepool ; or to S. L. Mosley Beau- 

 mont Park, Huddersrleld. 



