84 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



was never put upon the market, and hence became scarce. Linnaeus, in 

 his Systema NaturcC I., ii. p. 535, speaks of it in laudatory terms as 

 '' Clerckii icones i?isect07-um, pulcherrimum opics, quod etia??inujic vidit 

 orbis literatiisr Prof. Zeller, in the Stettiner Entomologische Zeitung, 

 Vol. XIV., p. 199, after describing at length the longing desires he had 

 felt to get a glimpse of the work, and how at last, through the kindness of 

 Alexander von Humboldt and the Librarian of the Royal Library at Berlin, 

 the wish had been gratified, and how it happened at the same time that he 

 was allowed the use of a mutilated copy belonging to Dr. Herrich-Schaeffer, 

 of Regensburg, goes on to state his disappointment with that part of 

 the work which is devoted to the illustration of the European Geometridse 

 and Pyralidae. He says : — " Welches wa?- abe?- der Eindruck, den das 

 pulcherrimum opiis, als ich es nun e?idlich vor Augen hatte, auf fjiich 

 machte ? Haite ich auch keine Bilder ivie in British Entomology oder wie 

 in der Exploration Scientifique de I'Algerie erwartet, so wusste ich mir 

 doch nicht sogleich Rechenschaft zu geben, wie Linne so j'aemmerliche 

 Malereien fuer etwas so Herrliches erklaeren konnte. Das ergab sich 

 denn wohl, dass nicht die Abbildungen Euiopaeischer Nachtfalter sodern 

 die der grossen, bunten Exote7i Linn'es Augen bestochen ufid ein so viel 

 sagendes Urtheil hervorgerufen hatten.'" While it is undoubtedly true 

 that the figures of the smaller forms are measurably disappointing, and 

 are not to be for a moment compared with the splendid productions which 

 have come to us in recent years from the press of Europe and America, 

 yet as a whole they compare very favourably with the illustrations given 

 in many of the works of the older authors. They are equal to those 

 given in Drury's illustrations, and are vastly superior to the great 

 majority of the figures given by such an author as Cramer. Zeller calls 

 attention to the fact that there are differences in the two copies which he 

 had under his eye at the time he wrote his critique, due to the work of 

 the colourist. The uncoloured plates in the copy before me explain the 

 manner in which these variations came to take place. The figures 

 prepared by the engraver were simply outlines done in copperplate, and 

 all of the shading, as well as the colouring, was left to the artist who 

 wielded the brush, and who can have had nothing to guide him in his 

 work except the original drawings, or the insects themselves. Under the 

 circumstances it is very plain that minor discrepancies must have 

 inevitably occurred. 



The North American insects figured in the work are the following : — 



