WCP4795

[1]

5. Westbourne Grove Terrace, London. W.

Aug. 24th. 1863.

My dear Cousin

I shall have great pleasure in proposing you as corresponding member of the Ent.[omological] Soc.[iety] of London¹, & any notes you may send on the habits or economy of insects will be received with pleasure & attention. What is the much wanted is the thorough study of some species of remarkable structure or habits from the egg <to> the imago & from "the cradle to the grave."

In such your observations opportunities will be great when you return to your agricultural or rather horticultural life, — & I would recommend you as a model some of the curious researches of Mr Darwin² on the complicated relations of one animal to another & to plants.

Notes & observations on birds & Mammalia are equally valuable & I shall [2] be happy to communicate such to the Zoological Society³. Your anecdote about the Dacelo gigantea though perhaps new is not very new, — because Gould⁴ mentions⁵ their eating mammalia [sic] & reptiles, & it is therefore not very remarkable that they should sometimes also eat birds. Gould says he shot one carrying a rare rat in its bill, & has seen them often catch & kill & eat snakes.

If I[?] were[?] in Australia I should certainly be attracted to the Buprestidae myself, from their beauty & variety. Have you Lacordaire[']s⁶ Work on the genera of Coleoptera⁷[.] It is first rate, & gives a list of all described species up to date of publication. It costs about 7s[illings]. a vol. Five vols. are out, the 4th. contains the Elateridae & Buprestidae ^{& Malacoderms Cleridae &c}. There is no recent monograph. An old one⁸ with coloured plates by "Castelnau⁹ & Gory¹⁰" is expensive, but useful as figuring [3] all the then known species I believe.

My collection of Buprestidae from the Malay islands is very fine, but of a totally different character from yours; — being almost all glossy species of green and gold metallic colours, & very few indeed spotted or banded with yellow. The small species are very interesting & I believe I have in all about 150 species. I have however innumerable varieties of some species which it almost impossible to classify.

By last mail I sent [MS torn] for £300, & full letters of [one word illeg.] for you and Theodore¹¹, but of course must leave a great deal to your judgement.

You must work hard at the minute & obscure things, of all orders and classes, as by doing so alone will the expedition pay expenses. The plan I adopted for work was as follows. At daylight, — hunters started to shoot, — I ^{after a cup of coffee} got out previous days coleoptera [sic] &c. to set out, pack away dry insects from drying boxes, & put up & pack away dry birds — get out all specimens to dry for the day — 9 o’clock breakfast. Ab[ou]^t 10 start insect hunting. — [4] My hunters returned about noon, eat breakfast & then set to work skinning. I returned about 2 or 3 — bathed, — got a cup of tea, — sat down to set out my butterflies, — put up birds the men had skinned, make notes &c. till 6 — then pack all things away carefully for the night, — & dine, — if in good situation near forest, look out for insects in evening with lamp, — try sugaring for moths &c. read or write ^tea & to bed early. —

When you are both together, — one can go out for two hours shooting before breakfast alternately, the other setting out insects &c. After breakfast both go out insect hunting — 10 to 2 are the best hours of the day for all insects in the equatorial regions.

Please take every opportunity of writing to me — And arrange for your first collections to reach England as soon as possible.

Forward the enclosed letter to your brother Algernon¹². With best wishes

I remain | my dear Cousin | yours very affectionately | Alfred R Wallace [signature]