THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 158.] SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1859 [Price Id. 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 
OF SPECIES. 
In the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1858 we were 
favoured (at p. 6018) with a very in- 
teresting Essay “ On the Geographical 
Distribution of Butterflies in Great 
Britain,” from the joint pens of 
Messrs. T. Boyd and A. G. More. 
That paper elicited some valuable ad- 
ditional observations, — a result which 
was tolerably certain to follow close 
upon the publication of the Essay. 
Though there need be no lack of 
local lists of our species, yet an at- 
tempt to compare and contrast these 
lists, so as to discover what species 
were common to all localities, and 
what species had a more restricted 
range, was something novel. No at- 
tempt at systematic generalization had 
been made till Messrs. Boyd and 
More boldly undertook to pioneer the 
way ; they conceived the building and 
erected the scaffold-poles; masons were 
then only wanted to construct the 
edifice. 
Unfortunately the Essay to which 
we are alluding related only to our 
Rhopalocera, — our Butterflies, — and 
Butterflies, it would clearly seem, are 
in this locality somewhat eccentric in 
their distribution. Great Britain is 
poor in Butterflies ; no country in 
Europe is so poor; but, as not un- 
frequently happens, our very poverty 
has led to a more complete explora- 
tion of our country, and if we be poor 
in Butterflies we are rich in Butterfly- 
hunters, — no country in the world is 
so thickly populated with collectors of 
Butterflies. 
We said that unfortunately the 
Essay by Messrs. Boyd and More re- 
lated only to our Butterflies ; but yet, 
on second thoughts, we feel half dis- 
posed to view that as a fortunate cir-, 
cumstance ; had the Essay extended 
to the whole of the Lepidoptera its 
length and abstruseness would have 
perplexed readers. A sermon, to be 
effective, should be short. Still we 
cannot but think that if any sound 
deductions are to be derived from a 
study of the geographical distribution 
of species, we must extend our points 
of survey, and not confine ourselves to 
a single group of the Lepidoptera. 
Hence we think it extremely de- 
sirable that similar Essays should bo 
laid before the public with reference 
