226 
THE WEEKLY ENTOMOLOGIST. 
Entomologists who do not know 
what it is, on going to their bed- 
rooms, supposing that the gas has 
been burning there for some time, 
to find a huge Noctua thumping 
wildly against the ceiling, and pre- 
pared to defy every effort to secure 
him. 
We can look back with pleasure 
on many an evening spent around 
lamp-posts and railway lights ; and 
on the first captures of such insects 
as E. Tiliana, G. Flavmjo , II. Popti- 
laris, and II. Nictitans. Fine series 
may be procured in this way, and 
gaps filled, with great rapidity, in 
the cabinet. 
The Entomologist must be proof 
against the playful sarcasms of 
passers by. There is something 
rather singular about a middle aged 
man, who bears a good character 
for sobriety and sanity, balancing 
himself upon the cross-bar of a 
lamp-post, and dodging with an 
empty pill-box an apparently empty 
space, or swarming up post after 
post for the mere purpose of opening 
the little glass door and shutting it 
again. We remember hearing a 
story (for the veracity of which we 
cannot undertake to answer) of an 
enthusiastic collector, who mounted 
a London lamp-post, and found at 
the top a specimen of Stanrojms 
Eagi. Just as he was securing it, 
however, the arm of justice inter- 
posed, and an astonished policeman 
summoned him to the ground. 
“ What are you doing there ? " 
asked the latter angrily. “ Catch- 
ing a lobster,” quoth the offender, 
who, unfortunately, as it turned out 
in this particular case, sided with 
Mr. Moms on the subject of English 
names. Now, a u lobster ” is, we 
believe, one of the jocose nicknames 
by which a policeman is familiarly 
known ; and so runs the story — the 
lobster catcher was altogether mis- 
understood, and “ had home to 
prison.” So much for English 
names 1 
But, without laying ourselves 
open to any such mistake as this, 
we may profit by the Autumn 
months, in this special kind of 
work. The season for it has fairly 
begun ; and we shall look for com- 
munications on the subject. An 
open window of a well lighted room 
will frequently prove as productive 
as any out-door lamps. 
The time has not come yet for 
resting from the Entomological 
labours of the year. We have 
more than two months before us, in 
which none should be idle. 
Tiie Weekly Entomologist may bo 
obtained from Mr. T. or Mr. J. B. 
Blackburn, the Yews, Woodford, 
London, N.E., by post, price Three 
Shillings and Three-pence per 
quarter, prepaid. 
