WCP693

[1]¹

Wykeham Hou<se>²

Oxford.

July 4/1904

My dear Wallace,

I have read Fred Birch’s³ letter with usual interest but I admit <MS burned> misgivings. I saw a tra<ce> of the same spirit when he was here:- a fine spirit but not practical or practicable in this position. He should <not> think of writing as a <main> profession until <MS burned> [2] <MS burned> his way to some means by collecting & this he seems <MS burned> to dislike. He shewed <MS burned> here ^somewhat but when I told him <of> the importance of catching some hundreds of a quite [illeg.] thing on one day in order to make out the <MS burned> of variation.

Writing needs special [MS burned]cation, special aptitude, <but> most of all — the ear <MS burned> public.

[3]

Now for a few hints.

Tin boxes are very dangerous unless the insects are absolutely dry. Card or cedar cigar boxes are much better. Had things ruined even in Canada by mould in tin boxes. You see it confines any moisture remaining in the [tin] & makes a damp atmospher[e] in which the mould grows. Beetles I have killed in cyanide bottle; or in laur<el> leaves. Spirit is <MS burned> should think <MS burned> [4] climate where damp & mould are the things to be feared. Beetles can be packed in sawdust in boxes <MS burned> with ^scale naphthalene intermixed. <MS burned> or cab carbolised saw-dust can be obtained. A good deal could be done by lamps or stoves in the way of drying. I think it is the custom in such a climate as to setting of course <MS burned> specimens fetch more <MS burned> commission [5] I presume would be the <MS burned> I think decidedly by that man in the field it would make more by not setting as this takes a long time <MS burned> would often set common <MS burned> he would not know to be <common>

It is quite customary to <MS burned> moths to send them home <pinned> into peat or pith about ¾ in thick — the long pins <go> through this to the wood. H. [H.] Smith a very fine S. am<erican> collector sends all his <MS burned> home that way <MS burned> [6] beautifully. I think the Orthoptera were done rightly but they should have been put in a wood box & not a tin one. The moisture in their bodies would last months even in a dryish place.

I have now answered all all the points. You know how little is paid for these things — except when <MS burned> new big & striking <MS burned> takes the fancy of [7] rich collectors —, so <MS burned> F. Birch’s only chance is to catch large numbers.⁴

[8] for the purpose simply <MS burned> one of the chapters of <MS burned> for autobiography⁵