THE ENTOJVrOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
176 
monopoly, only, this time, the profes- 
sional is to be assisted by the amateur 
dealer. This is a delightful state of 
things ; but if it is supposed that by any 
such means I shall be presented from 
exposing contemptible practices, or ex- 
pressing my opinions whenever I think 
proper, all I have to say is — it is a 
mistake. 
I have often thought of calling atten- 
tion to the consequences of the wholesale 
slaughter occasionally chronicled in the 
‘ Intelligencer.’ Among the notices of 
captures, several instances occur where — 
mention having been made of the capture 
of 100, 200 or more of a local species last 
year — much surprise is expressed that 
only two or three were seen this season. 
Now, in the name of common sense, how 
can it be otherwise? Do these gentle- 
men imagine moths and butterflies come 
somehow spontaneously into existence, 
without assistance from the parents they 
so ruthlessly destroy? Does it never 
occur to them to calculate the probable 
number of larvae, for the following season, 
they annihilate by the slaughter of forty 
or fifty females before they have deposited 
their ova ? 
Mr. Barrett, actuated by a laudable 
desire to vindicate the conduct of his 
friend, takes what is, I fear, a loo favour- 
able view of the case. I am quite ready 
to believe Mr. Birchall made his whole- 
sale collection of Zonaria with the most 
generous intentions, and no doubt any 
one, unable to collect himself, is perfectly 
justifiable in employing another to do so 
for him ; but I for one very much ques- 
tion the propriety of employing children . 
in the incautious manner mentioned by 
Mr. Gregson. I am sure, if they will 
reflect a moment, the good sense of both 
Mr. Birchall and Mr. Barrett will tell 
them that such a course — however tem- 
porarily convenient — must eventually 
lead to the entire destruction of local 
species. In this immediate neighbour- 
hood the same practice of paying boys, 
&c., to sweep the hedges of the larvae of 
Trichiura Cratmgi and Orgyia Gono- 
stigma has resulted apparently in the 
complete extermination of both species. 
With regard to “ exchange,” I shall 
have a little to say another day, but in 
the mean time I will venture to hope 
that Mr. Barrett does not wish to in- 
sinuate that only those who abstain from 
what Mr. Gregson calls “selling” their 
specimens are “ gentlemen;” because, if 
so, judging from the notices under the 
head of “Exchange” in the ‘Intelli- 
gencer,’ the “ gentlemen entomologists ’’ 
are in a most lamentable minority. 
In conclusion, — as I disapprove of 
inuendoes equally with Mr. BaiTett, — 
I beg to inform him that I can bear 
testimony to Mr. Gregson’s generosity, 
to which I am indebted for several spe- 
cies now in my cabinet. 
Yours, 6cc., 
J. Havvlev, 
55, Hall Gate, Doncaster ; 
August 21, 1861. 
To the Editor of the ‘ Intelligencer.' 
Sir, — To all who know Mr. Birchall 
any vindication of his character is pal- 
pably superfluous, and I doubt not that 
he holds in utter abhorrence the “ pre- 
sentation of testimonials.” I do not, 
therefore, propose to furnish a testi- 
monial ; but I have a right (which, with 
your kind permission, Mr. Editor, I will 
exercise) to state a fact or two which 
will supplement the observations of 
Mr. Barrett, at p. 169 ante. 
As a member of the York Entomo- 
logical Society I have had experience of 
