THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER, 
No. 12.] SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 1856. [Price Id. 
THE LONGEST DAY. 
The longest Jay is not long enough for 
the eager entomologist : he has to be all 
eyes, and wants to be in all places at 
once. 
M. Bellier de la Chavignerie, when 
collecting in the Alps last summer, used 
to he at it from 5 a. m. to 10 p. m., and 
then used to be so far knocked up as to 
be unwilling to set out all his captures ; 
yet some must be set out, and as the 
period for excursions is generally very 
limited, there is a fierce struggle con- 
tinually going on to catch as much as 
possible, and at the same time to set out 
• the best of everything caught. 
Returning tired and weary after a long 
day’s ramble, well sun-burnt, and badly 
gnat-bitten, the entomologist has to pre- 
serve an even serenity of temper, so as to 
keep his hand perfectly steady, that he 
may pin without injuring it some rare 
preciosity. 
Now one great difficulty arises from 
the simultaneous appearance of so many 
different species : the last ten days of 
June, and the first ten days of July, 
nearly half the whole number of our 
species of insects are to be met with. 
Does it not stand to reason that the 
entomologist to get on, to make some 
real progress, more than a mere jumble 
of caught specimens, must restrict his 
energies to particular groups, not at- 
tempting to do everything? 
The collector who devoted his atten- 
tion exclusively to the Clear-wiugs or to 
the Prominents would find, at the close 
of the season, a more satisfactory result, 
an acquisition of a real tangible amount 
of knowledge very different from the un- 
certain unsatisfactory result which is but 
too frequently the concomitant of the ordi- 
nary go-a-head, catch-all-you-can, (never 
minding if you learn nothing), style of 
collecting. In point of fact we know it 
is impossible to do everything; by trying 
to do too much we may ensure that all 
that is done shall be badly done. 
We are not wishing to preach to our 
older readers, but we know that we have 
a large proportion of the rising genera- 
tion among our readers; and to those 
who naturally look up to the more ad- 
vanced with a feeling of reverence and 
awe, and who fancy in order to excel in 
the race the only way is to run with all 
their speed, it may not be altogether 
useless to remind them that a little well 
done is better than a far greater quantity 
ill done. 
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