24 
of activity amongst naturalists, but I regret to have to confess that 
many and varied claims upon my time have prevented my keeping 
myself altogether an fait with the work done in the different sections 
of the wide field of Natural History, and, I therefore, do not feel com¬ 
petent to enter upon a review of the year’s work. As regards our ever- 
increasing mass of literature I observe with satisfaction that a good 
deal is being attempted in the direction of coping with it and rendering 
it accessible ; the best class of monographers, undismayed by the 
magnitude of the task, continue to give us good bibliographical refe¬ 
rences, and I am glad to learn that Mr. C. Davies Sherborn, F.Z.S., 
has at last advanced far enough to be able to prepare for the press the 
first part of his colossal “ Index Animalium ” which is to be to zoolo¬ 
gists what the “ Index Kewensis is to botanists. I have not heard 
recently of the progress of the still more gigantic work which was to 
be undertaken in Germany under the title “ Das Tierreich.” In the 
same category of useful compilations of hitherto scattered descriptions, 
&c., rather than as a final pronouncement upon matters of classifica¬ 
tion, one must regard Sir George Hampson’s “ Catalogue of the 
Lepidoptera Phalaenae ” now publishing under the auspices of the 
British Museum, and of which the second volume, dealing with the 
Arctiadae, appeared early in the present year. I have been given to 
understand that another extremely useful effort in the department of 
compilation, or rather of indexing, has been taken in hand in connec¬ 
tion with the indispensable, yet somewhat inaccessible, contents of the 
annual “ Zoological Record,” which are at length to be subjected to 
the needful indexing. It is evident that there is great need for still 
more bibliographical work, for more references and cross-references, 
abstracts and summaries and even full quotations, in order that the 
present generation may know something of what has been done by the 
preceding ones, that the lamentable waste of labour involved in the 
re-discovery of discovered facts may be prevented—or rather minimised 
for we can never hope to prevent it entirely—and that the zeal and 
enterprise of present-day workers may be directed to the investigation 
and solution of the many and urgent problems which still remain 
unsolved, or even untouched. I once received, in response to an 
application for information on a genus which I was then studying, a 
charming little letter from an entomologist whom I will not name, as 
he has since “ gone over to the majority,” in which letter he enclosed 
some doggrel about “ Compilers who read, compilers who write, com¬ 
pilers who spoil good paper once white,” Ac.; but I regret to say that 
in spite of the gentle hint I have continued to “compile,” and I venture 
to affirm before you all that I think the compiler—if he does his work 
intelligently and discriminately, for we do not want Johann August 
Ephiam Goeze, and Johann Friedrich Gmelin and others of their 
genus to re-appear upon the scenes—the compiler, I say, has a very 
useful place to fill, and I would even express the wish that more would 
engage in this work, and less would occupy themselves with mediocre 
“ orig.nal work which, after all, is generally not original at all. 
Me shall all, I am sure, agree that the greatest entomological 
production of the year has been the second volume of “ British 
Lepidcptera ” by our illustrious Vice-President, Mr. J. W. Tutt. Here 
we have a compilation and much more than a compilation, the work of 
the past respected and used as it deserves to be, the workers of the 
