THE ENTOMOLOGIST'S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 217.] SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1860 [Price Id. 
SHARKS. 
“ I have been in * * * * several 
times this season, and always done 
well ; I also spent a short time at 
* * * * during July, and had 
great sport. You will ask why have 
I not forwarded a list of captures to 
the ‘Intelligencer?’ Shall I tell you 
why its pages have been so singularly 
barren of late of such communications ? 
People are afraid of the consequences. 
I dare not tell your readers the inte- 
resting fact that * * is one of the 
commonest butterflies at * * * *, 
and that I caught sixty in one 
morning; or that a few nights’ sugar 
at * * * produced, among other 
things, sixty * * * and eighty 
* * *, or that * *, &c. ; because, 
if I had done so, I should have had 
about 500 applications for the insects 
before the ink was dry.” 
The above is extracted from a real 
letter lately received. The writer con- 
tinues as follows: — 
“ Some time back I mentioned the 
capture of * * * ; the remark cost 
me £5 in postage and the loss of 
fourteen boxes not returned, nor even 
the receipt of them acknowledged.” 
“ People seem to be possessed with 
a perfect mania for the accumulation 
of collections, and set all the rules 
which should regulate the intercourse 
of gentlemen at defiance: they beg your 
insects and then at once offer them 
for sale, under the guise of “ Ex- 
change,” of which a notable instance 
lately graced (or disgraced ?) your 
columns.” 
“ Pleasant, very, after letting a man 
pick a dozen of your best insects, to 
see them advertised.” 
“ Something ought to be done to check 
a system which prevents your obtaining 
local lists or observations on captures, 
and must be disgusting to the real 
students of nature.” 
So far our valued correspondent ; now 
what is to be said in reply? Is the 
allegation true ? or is it merely a horrid 
chimsera engendered by a disordered 
imagination ? 
We fancy we have heard something 
like it before: we think we remember 
an instance of an entomologist offering 
to give away some insects gratuitously, 
and it cost him £2 for postage, &c., 
and he reaped several letters — not of 
thanks, but — of abuse ! Surely this 
was a novel idea of a gratuitous distri- 
bution ! 
In future it will always be pleasanter 
to put one’s spare specimens behind the 
K 
