THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 157.] SATUBDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1859 
AUTUMN. * 
1 • \ . \ 
With the commencement of October we 
again begin another volume. “ Now, 
gentlemen, if you please,” as Dr. Blim- 
ber would say, “ we will resume our 
studies.” 
During the height of the collecting 
season we never expect much in the 
form of digested observations ; so much 
has then to be noted down, that scarcely 
any lime is afforded for putting things 
into shape. Autumn and winter are 
* w jf • ' * ’ 
the proper seasons for bringing into 
systematic compass the miscellanea har- 
vested during the months of Spring 
and Summer. Not that entomologists 
are expected at once to put by the 
net, the sugar-pot and the collecting- 
bottle, — their period of inaction has not 
arrived yet, — but still they have more 
leisure than they had a few months 
ago ; and now is the time, whilst 
matters are still fresh in their recollec- 
tion, to digest and chronicle the obser- 
vations made in the season of 1859. 
Poor 1859 ! how swiftly it has sped 
— at least to us; to our younger 
readers its flight may have appeared 
less rapid. 
[Price Id. 
Ancient astronomers used to occupy 
themselves in making catalogues of the 
stars: the use of such catalogues was 
not at first sight fully apparent, but 
now we find, says Sir John Herscliel, 
that “on a careful re-examination of 
the heavens and a comparison of cata- 
logues, many stars are now found to 
be missing; and although there is no 
doubt that these losses have arisen, in 
the great majority of instances, from 
mistaken entries, and in some from 
planets having been mistaken for stars, 
yet in some it is equally certain that 
there is no mistake in the observation 
or entry, and that the star lias really 
been observed, and as really has dis- 
appeared from the heavens.” 
Entomological catalogues may some 
day, in like manner, furnish results 
little anticipated by those who made 
them. Catalogues, no doubt, are very 
liable to errors, and errors in Entom- 
ology, we all know, are ouly too easily 
made. The probable extinction of spe- 
cies in the course of years is a subject 
which must increasingly occupy our 
attention. In a recent catalogue of 
our Lepidoptera many species were 
purposely omitted which had formerly 
occurred here, because for a series of 
n 
