The T00H$ 8ATOAMST: 



A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 95. SEPTEMBER 3rd, 1881. Vol. 2. 



FIELD CLUBS. 



HAYING been asked and consented 

 to become President of a Young 

 Naturalists' Field Club, which appears 

 likely to be of some assistance to its 

 members, we have thought it worth 

 while to make z^me suggestions on the 

 subject, with a view to the further de- 

 velopment of such societies. Young 

 Naturalists, undoubtedly, have great 

 difficulties in their way, and many a 

 youth, who might have made a valued 

 addition to our ranks, is checked and 

 deterred at the outset, and his taste de- 

 velopes in another direction. We have 

 reason to believe our suggestions respect- 

 ing Local Societies were instrumental 

 in causing more than one to be formed, 

 but a Field Club can be got up with 

 less difficulty than a Society — it is less 

 formal and perhaps more enjoyable. 

 Besides, a well conducted Field Club 

 may assist beginners far more than the 

 mere naming of specimens or verbal 

 instructions that can be given at a 

 Society meeting or an " At Home." 

 Nor this only, but beginners often do 

 and discover, extraordinary things. The 

 good luck of novices is almost proverbial, 

 and it is because they do not make dis- 

 coveries in a scientific manner that they 



) 



are called "lucky." But the fact is 

 that " old hands " get into a groove, and 

 work there contentedly. Beginners have 

 all to find out, and not knowing that a 

 certain species is to be met with in a 

 certain lane, they don't go there, but go 

 elsewhere, and turn up something new 

 to the district, or even to the country. 

 But beginners may readily enough take 

 something new, or discover some un- 

 known fact, and just because they arc 

 beginners, and do not know what they 

 have done, the discovery may be lost to 

 the world. 



The Field Club, over which we 

 have agreed to preside, is composed 

 and managed entirely by " Young Nat- 

 uralists," and our duties are not very 

 onerous. We are expected to preside 

 occasionally over their meetings ; go 

 with them now and again on an excur- 

 sion ; name their specimens, and give 

 them any help they may need. But 

 their rules are of the simplest kind. 

 There should be no difficulty in such a 

 a society being formed where there are 

 half-a-dozen " Young Naturalists." May 

 we insert here a few suggestions. The 

 first necessity, of course, is a few mem- 

 bers. To begin with, not many are 

 needed — half-a-dozen would make a 



