TRANSACTIONS. OUR
FIRST
IRREGULĂ„R
MEMOIR.
is very gratifying to senior Members, at the close of our T H I R D to find how well and steadily the Suffolk Naturalists' Society has expanded since its foundation no more than nine years ago by a few of the keenest local scientists. From a total of seventy-odd in the first year we have grown to a membership of some three hundred. This popularity is largely due to the policy of retaining no capital for the improbable rainy day. All subscriptions are devoted, beyond mere working expenses, to the diffusion of knowledge by publication ; and in so thriving a condition are we that it has been found possible to issue this year, not only the usual comprehensive ' Transactions ' but in addition, a detailed catalogue of " T h e Lepidoptera of Suffolk," which is distributed free to every Entomological Member and, upon application, to our other Members. IT
VOLUME,
This represents the First of the Society's ' Irregulär Memoirs ' ; and we hope many will follow in its train upon purely comital subjects. In it the total of the Butterflies and Moths known to occur, or to have been found at any time, in Suffolk is raised from 1356 (of Trans, ii, 170) to just over 1500species : no mean achievement in the course of only four years. And, though the labourof harnessing the smaller of these Insects into general Classification, of detecting them in their often obscure retreats, and finally of their correct identification wherein much is due to Dr. Whittingham and Mr. Arthur Rusher Hayward of Misterton, has not been light, ' finis coronat opus.' We may regard the result as entirely satisfactory and, doubtless still failing to embrace every existing kind, forming a firm fulcrum for future investigation. THE HON.
EDITOR.