THE 
WEEKLY ENTOMOLOGIST. 
“ ENTOJIA QUIDQUID AGUNT NOSTRI EST FARRAGO LOBELIA.” 
Vol. 2/ No. 25.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 1863. 
PERSEVERANCE. 
A NOTHER number will bring- to 
a close tbe second volume of 
the “Weekly Entomologist,” being 
the last of the present quarter. W e 
think it well to remind our readers 
of this in good time. 
Our journal has now all but com- 
pleted its first year, and the resolu- 
tion which the editors come to is, to 
persevere as they have begun. Per- 
severence is our watchword, may it 
be that of every reader of our pages. 
We will address ourselves particu- 
larly to beginners, who, perhaps, 
may stand in greatest need of 
encouragement. Your efforts, we 
will suppose, have known no respite 
since you fii-st became champions of 
the science. Day after day has seen 
your net waving like a banner in the 
field ; night after night has wit- 
nessed your stealthy and expectant 
tread through shady lanes, or along 
rows of trees, where alluring dainties 
wooed the winged hordes, while the 
flash of your bull’s eye danced like a 
meteor on the road, and bank, and 
hedge. Or, again, some grey au- 
tumnal sky may behold you prostrate 
beside some lofty poplar or spread- 
[Price 2d, 
ing oak, searching, with aching back 
and desperate resolution, for pupa 
or for beetles. Insects form the 
staple theme of your thoughts and 
conversation by day, and the subject 
of your nightly dreams. A neat and 
carefully-kept diary chronicles the 
results of your exertions. But what 
are those results ? Long series of 
common insects, discoveries of stale 
facts, and a weight of disappoint- 
ment, such as only unrewarded 
merit can feel. “Why,” you ask, 
“ when collectors of my acquaintance, 
who scarcely care to do a week’s 
honest collecting the whole year, 
are constantly stumbling on rarities, 
and parading their odious names in 
the ‘ Annual,” am I, a really hard 
worker, condemned to an eternal 
repetition of ‘ common ’ captures ? 
Do I, by some lucky chance, get a 
moth that is new to me, the 
1 Manual ’ stigmatises my ‘ rarity ’ as 
abundant everywhere, and so far 
from congratulating me on my cap- 
ture, iufoi-ras me that I was ‘ very 
stupid ’ not to have taken it long 
ago.” The present season, we should 
imagine, is very likely to throw :» 
beginner into a state of despondency. 
