THE ENTOMOLOGISTS 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 232.] SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 1861. [Price Id. 
SPRING. 
Thanks to winter coining at its right 
time, we have already a pleasing pros- 
pect of spring. The hawthorn hedges 
are already green when viewed laterally, 
and the blackbird commenced singing 
nearly a fortnight ago. Entomologists 
may therefore now expect to open the 
campaign in earnest, and we trust that 
our pages will soon be enlivened by 
numerous accounts of captures and 
observations. 
The sallows are already in full bloom 
in forward situations, and Leucograpka 
and the other early Tceniocampee are 
doubtless already on the wing. The 
occurrence of a new Noetua in South 
Wales, of which hybernated specimens 
come to sugar in March, should stimu- 
late to increased efforts in exploring 
new localities ; some species are so 
local, though not rare where they do 
occur. 
One remarkable effect of the intense 
frost at Christmas was the freezing of 
the ink on the desks of most of our 
correspondents: apparently all subse- 
quent attempts to thaw this frozen ink 
have been of no avail, and hence few 
entomological communications have lat- 
terly reached us. 
It is true that some entomologists 
did succeed in preventing their ink 
from freezing by adding to it a mix- 
ture of gall and vinegar; but we cannot 
recommend this plan for general adop- 
tion, because the effect has not been 
altogether successful, the communica- 
tions written with this mixture being 
of so acrid a nature that most of them 
are quite unfit for publication. 
Formerly entomologists were reckoned 
as a good-humoured and genial race, 
and we have even heard more than one 
individual described post-prandially, in 
the neighbourhood of Birch Wood, as 
“ a jolly good fellow ; ” but, alas ! 
things seem sadly altered now-a-days, 
and we should never feel surprised 
to hear that the bones of a genial 
entomologist had been found imbedded 
along with the “ flint implements in 
the drift.” 
May the coming spring weather bring 
back a more balmy state of things. 
You cannot cross a heath on a plea- 
sant spring day and be thinking vin- 
dictively how best to annoy a brother 
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