llection and to devote the
necessary time to its study and ultimately to the preparation of a
complete and useful work. Though I cannot but be pleased that you are
able to do so, I am certainly surprised to find that you indulge in the
expensive luxury of from three to seven specimens of a species. I should
have thought that in such a very extensive group you would have found
one or, at most, a pair quite sufficient. I fancy very few collectors of
exotic insects do more than this, except where they can obtain
additional specimens by gift or by exchange. Your remarks on my
collections are very interesting to me, especially as I have kept
descriptions with many outline figures of my Malacca and Sarawak
Geodephaga, so that with one or two exceptions I can recognise and
perfectly remember every species you mention....

Now with regard to your request for notes of habits, etc. I shall be
most willing to comply with it to some extent, first informing you that
I look forward to undertaking on my return to England a "Coleoptera
Malayana," to contain descriptions of the known species of the whole
Archipelago, with an essay on their geographical distribution, and an
account of the habits of the genera and species from my own
observations. Of course, therefore, I do not wish any part of my notes
to be published, as this will be a distinctive feature of the work, so
little being known of the habits, stations and modes of collecting
exotic Coleoptera, ...

You appear to consider the state of entomological literature flourishing
and satisfactory: to _me_ it seems quite the contrary. The number of
unfinished works and of others with false titles is disgraceful to
science....

I think ... on the whole we may say that the Archipelago is _very rich_,
and will bear a comparison even with the richest part of South America.
In the country between Ega and Peru there is work for fifty collectors
for fifty years. There are hundreds and thousands of Andean valleys
every one of which would bear exploring. Here it is the same with
islands. I could spend twenty years here were life long enough, but feel
I cannot stand it, away from home and books and collections and
comforts, more than four or five, and then I shall have work to do for
the rest of my life. What would be the use of accumulating materials
which one could not have time to work up? I trust your brother may give
us a grand and complete work on the Coleoptera of the Amazon Valley, if