THE ENTOMOLOGIST'S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 31.] SATURDAY, MAY 2, 1857. [Price Id. 
Gastropacha Ilicifolia. (See p. 34.) 
LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS. 
We believe there is a steadily-increasing 
demand for Provincial Associations of 
Naturalists. The naturalist feels that, 
to a certain extent, he is looked on as a 
queer fish by his friends and relations, 
and therefore he is anxious to fall in with 
other fishes addicted to the same kind of 
queerness , so that they may keep one ano- 
ther somewhat in countenance. 
Besides, man is a social animal ; he 
was not formed to live alone ; his higher 
faculties do not obtain their full play till 
he mixes in society ; hence the desire 
that our isolated naturalist expresses to 
find other naturalists is simply one of 
those feelings implanted in the heart of 
man by which he is continually impelled 
to improve himself. Well, we will sup- 
pose that this isolated naturalist does 
succeed in finding some kindred spirits, 
and that then, with the view of obtaining 
the maximum amount of benefit from 
each other’s society, they resolve to form 
themselves into a Club or Association, 
with stated rules and periods of meeting. 
So far, so good ! 
We are not speaking here solely of En- 
tomological Associations, we are alluding 
to Natural History Clubs, which include, 
besides Entomologists, Ornithologists, 
Botanists, et hoc genus omne. 
Clubs of Naturalists of all sorts are 
likely, in provincial towns, to be more 
serviceable even to Entomologists than 
Clubs purely Entomological, and they 
are far more likely to be attainable in 
country towns, where Entomologists are 
not numerous, than an Association com- 
posed exclusively of Entomologists would 
be. All such Clubs or Associations 
should have fixed periodic times of 
meeting: in the winter in-doors, in the 
summer in the open air. These open-air 
meetings, these rambles over hill and 
dale, replace the boisterous pursuits of 
hunting and shooting, to which men, of a 
lower grade of civilisation than your Na- 
turalist, are not unfrequently addicted. 
On such excursions it must be a great 
boon to the Entomologist to have a 
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