1883.] 
The British Mania. 
605 
VI. THE BRITISH MANIA. 
By J. W. Slater. 
J LT must not be supposed from this title that I am about 
. to sit in judgment on the feeling which was once ap- 
plauded as patriotism, but which is now sneered at by 
“ advanced ” speakers under a short and intensely vulgar 
name. My subjedt is the propensity, common among 
British naturalists, or rather I might say collectors, to con- 
fine their operations to the fauna, or the flora, of the United 
Kingdom, and to pass over those of the rest of the world 
with sublime indifference. Such persons, if, e.g., engaged 
with the “study” of Lepidoptera, make it their life-objedl 
to get together a “ complete collection ” ; that is, to accu- 
mulate British specimens of all the species of Lepidoptera 
known to inhabit the British Islands. In the pursuit of this 
task they are often so regardless of trouble and expense that 
sums of £5 and upwards are sometimes given for an insig- 
nificant moth, which, when acquired, proves nothing. At 
the same time a Continental specimen of the very same 
inseCI is often thought not worth accepting as a gift. 
This propensity is, I believe, absolutely peculiar to Britain. 
I have known German entomologists, who, whilst rigorously 
careful concerning the locality of every specimen in their 
collections, and to note any local peculiarities which may 
occur, yet attach no especial value to any inseCt from the 
mere faCt of its having been caught within the boundaries of 
the German empire. A Dutch, French, Swiss, Hungarian, 
or Danish specimen has for them the very same worth. 
Our true British maniac, on the other hand, often cares very 
little about the exaCt locality of his acquisitions. If they 
are only British,— on which point he is often deceived, — it 
is for him enough. But of this hereafter. 
I will now ask, What constitutes a British species ? A 
definite answer, based on a logical principle, is not to be 
found. It will not do to say anything captured within the 
four seas of Britain. All species or specimens of species 
found in Belgium or France are at once excluded. But a 
species or a specimen met with in Ireland, in the Outer 
Hebrides, or the Shetlands, is admissible. Twenty miles of 
sea form a boundary to the “ British ” district in one direc- 
tion, but not in another. What is caught beyond the straits 
