]46 BRITISH BEES. 



mouth, but which Fabricius, its projector, had, singu- 

 larly enough, failed to accomplish successfully. 



Both works were published in the same year, 1802 

 (An X. of Latreille's book), unknown to each other, 

 but Mr. Kirby's sprang into life in matured perfection, 

 like the imago of the bee itself, whereas Latreille's 

 labours were progressively nursed to maturity in succes- 

 sive publications, until they received their final elabora- 

 tion in 1809, in the fourth volume of his ' Genera 

 Crustaceorum et Insectorum/ whose successive stages 

 were, first, the notice appended at the end of his ' Histoire 

 desFourmis' in Paris in 1801, and then in the thirteenth 

 volume of his ' Histoire Naturelle des Insectes/ in 1805, 

 a supplement to Sonnini's edition of Buffon, and then in 

 the ' Nouveau Dictionnaire d' Histoire Naturelle.' Even 

 thus the subject was not so amply discussed, although 

 applied more extensively, and made to embrace all the 

 bees, exotic as well as European, at that time known, as 

 it had been done in Mr. Kirby's model work, which 

 leaves nothing to be desired but the naming of his 

 anonymous subdivisions, and a little more artistical skill 

 in the execution of his plates. The terminology used 

 by him also differs from that subsequently adopted 

 through foreign influences, but which is readily reduced 

 to his standard. 



The merits of the work greatly transcend these trivial 

 deficiencies, for it is a "canon" as invaluable to the 

 entomologist as the celebrated canon of Polycletus was, 

 and the Phidian marbles still are to sculptors. Of course 

 observation has greatly reduced the number of his species 

 by their due association with legitimate partners, which, 

 from their dissimilarity, he was compelled to separate, 

 as only successive observation could prove their identity. 



