decessors omitted: his work does not exceed two hun dred Lepidoptera, and about three hundred more in the other orders. Nevertheless, it has been found very useful as far as it goes; and the public have demanded three editions of it. The British Insects of my friend Donovan is an elegant and valuable publication; yet it is not a general work, intended to include complete descriptions of every species; but confessedly, a selection only, of those which are most interesting. A far more elaborate account of British Entomology than that of Donovan, is expected from a pen much superior to either his or mine:-I mean that of my friend T. Marsham, Esq. who has laboured a great many years for that purpose, and lately published his first volume, containing the Order Coleoptera. The completion of this work will be highly pleasing to all admirers of the science; but the extreme intricacy of its subsequent parts, must still require a considerable period of time, and infinite pains and skill; to give them that perfection which is so manifest in the valuable volume already published: and to communicate them to the public before they have acquired that finish, merely to gratify the impatience of curiosity, what judicious Entomologist would either wish or desire ? Until that time shall arrive therefore, and possibly long afterwards; it is presumed this present work will be found at once necessary and useful: because it is constructed on a plan entirely dissimilar to any other, hitherto announced to the public. But if any other qualifications should be wanted to recommend it, let them be, the conciseness and novelty of its Sectional, Generic, and Specific Characters; the amplitude of its general descriptions, which are likewise perfectly new; and the entire novelty of the Observations (a) which occasionally follow them. Those parts which relate to the times of feeding, food, and times of flight, and measure of the wings, are also completely new; and not taken from the works of Harris, or any other author; two or three solitary instances alone excepted, where the circumstances are properly acknowledged. (a) These observations are given in English, after the manner of my friend the Rev. Mr. Kirby, in his Monographia Apum Angliæ. They may possibly be thought by some readers mere unnecessary digressions, in a technical work like the present; but there are others, who, far from calling them a deterioration ; will say they are both desirable and explanatory; and have likewise a peculiar tendency to remove that wellknown tedium, which never fails to accompany uninterrupted techni cality. PREFACE. MANY years have now elapsed, since, with enthusiastic pleasure, I began to collect, arrange, and describe the natural productions of this our fertile and happy island; but more especially its Birds, Insects, and Vegetables (a). For (a) Permit me here to solicit from my fellow admirers of Natural History, a few desiderata, in those branches of the science, which yet remain to complete my collection of British Birds, Lepidoptera, and perfect Plants; and to express my readiness to make any return, either pecuniary, or in articles of Natural History, that may be required.-Of the Birds of these united kingdoms, For these purposes I have diligently examined many parts of England personally, and usually on foot and alone; but sometimes accompanied by pedestrian friends of congenial sentiments and taste. Industriously we have sought, and never once in vain, a great variety of woods and lawns, hills and vales, marshes and fens; one summer only, travelling in various journeys, not fewer than a thousand miles; in spite of heat and cold, wet and drought, and various other concomitant impediments. "Quis in sole exustus, pede celeri montes agrosque percurrit? Ille solus qui natura dotatus fuerit, qui vini, cibi, somnique minime benignus, pane secundo lacteque contentus, tuguria rusticosque non spernit." VILLARS. ENTOM. Preface. But the counties I have more particularly, and more successfully entomologized in, are, Middlesex, Sussex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and the beautiful Isle of Thanet; Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Westmore Alca impennis. Great Auk. crepidatus. Black-toed Gull. - parasiticus. Arctic Gull. Procellaria glacialis. Fulmar Anas ruficollis. Red-breasted Goose. Anas glocitans. Bimaculated Duck. rufigaster. Red-breasted Shoveler. spectabilis. King Duck. histrionica. Harlequin Duck. Pelecanus cristatus. Crested Shag. Of the favourite and beautiful order of Insects, Lepidoptera ; those only whose names have a † attached to them in the margins of this work, And of the described perfect Plants of Great Britain (as they are usually but inaccurately called) the few following: |