THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
... ■ ■ --X-- - r — ;; ■ ■■■ v — 
No. 171.] SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 18G0 [Price Id. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
We believe many of our readers will 
have perused with more than usual 
interest the observations so kindly for- 
warded to us by “ Q,” which were 
commenced in our last number, and 
are continued in the present. 
Why have we not more of such 
observations? Every now and then a 
facile writer fills us two note -sheets 
of his jottings of reply to some casual 
remark made by a greenhorn ; but 
these jottings, in which every state- 
ment is selected with a view to argu- 
ment, and not with a view to fact, 
are not precisely the style of observa- 
tion we so much admire. 
We are aware that some are afraid 
of sending their observations to press 
for fear of some mistake or error, 
which would expose them to the mer- 
ciless indignation of some veteran who 
has not yet learned to look leniently 
on the errors of others. But then why 
not imitate poor “ Q,” and assume a 
norn de guerre. “ Q ” confides to us 
his name, and is not therefore to us 
an anonymous writer; but, abstaining 
from printing his affixes and prefixes 
in full, his errors attract less censure, 
for no one likes to wield a club in 
the dark for fear of demolishing the 
brains of his best friend, and hence 
it happens that “ Q’s ” blunders — and 
no doubt some may be found — will, 
if commented on at all, receive a more 
charitable interpretation than would 
otherwise have been vouchsafed to 
them. 
Perhaps the main difficulty with 
most competent observers is to find 
time to digest their observations, .suffi- 
ciently to put them in the most avail- 
able form for publication. On that 
point each individual must be the 
best judge of what time his observa- 
tions take to digest (we do not all 
possess the digestive organs of the 
ostrich), and whether he can conve- 
niently spare the necessary time. 
But we trust this exhortation, and 
the example held out by “ Q,” will 
induce some score of entomologists to 
profitably employ some of the long 
evenings during the next two months 
in digesting some observations for us. 
With the opening of the new year 
a fresh burst of activity ought to 
circulate amongst the entomological 
community, and now that we are held 
a 
