220 Our Friends and how we Treat them . [April, 
national,” the children are allowed to remain in ignorance 
of the claims of the lower animals upon man. In many 
places — we may mention Aylesbury — the harmless newt, is 
looked upon as a loathsome and venomous monster., which 
may be justifiably put to a death of torture. If one is found 
it is placed in any convenient little hollow of the ground, 
covered with petroleum, and then set on fire. Surely such 
ignorance is a national disgrace. We do not, indeed, recom- 
mend the appointment of “ county naturalists.” Such posts, 
if created, would be filled by poor helpless examinees who 
would be better acquainted with every subject than with 
zoology, and who in the field would be unable to distinguish 
a nightingale from a wagtail. 
There is another cause which leads to the decrease, and 
must ultimately bring on the extirpation of many rare, 
curious, and beautiful species. This cause is peculiar to our 
country, and in the eyes of all foreigners it appears almost 
beyond the ridiculous. We refer to the “ British ”. mania 
among the collectors of birds and inseCts. All scientific 
naturalists in these days, worthy of the name, consider the 
distribution of any living species on the surface of the globe 
as one of the most important points in its history. Conse- 
quently it is essential to know what species occur in every 
country, and even every district. But the mania in question 
is something quite different. Take, for instance, one of 
those butterfly-hunters who fancy themselves entomologists. 
He buys a cabinet, procures a set of printed labels of 
“ British ” species, fixes them duly in the drawers, and then 
endeavours to add to each label one or more specimens of 
each kind; this he effects by capture, exchange, or purchase. 
As regards the rarer forms, he is willing to pay the most 
preposterous price for a poor shabby specimen which has 
been — or is said to have been — captured within the United 
Kingdom, whilst he will scarcely accept as a gift one of the 
same species of avowedly Continental origin. Nothing of 
the kind, to our belief and knowledge, prevails in any other 
country. We have met with German collectors of inseCts 
exceedingly scrupulous as to the exaCt locality of every spe- 
cimen admitted into their cabinets ; but we never knew a 
higher price offered for a German specimen of any inseCt, 
as German, than if it had been taken in France, or Switzer- 
land, or Hungary. 
As regards birds the case is precisely analogous. The 
consequence is that as soon as a rarity is seen every marks- 
man in the district is on the alert to bring it down and offer 
it for sale or exhibition as an authentic “ British specimen.” 
