I'ROC. ENT. SOC. WASH., VOL. 23, \O. 4, APRIL, \<)2\ 77 



richly deserves, tor many and various reasons, very much more 

 extended biographic treatment than has yet been accorded him. 

 It is to be hoped that some one of his contemporaries will yet 

 record many significant tacts and incidents bearing upon his 

 career and its contact with the lives and the work of his associ- 

 ates which no one has yet been willing to place on record. 



In a paper of so limited a character as the present one it has 

 been possible to consider only those draughtsmen who have work- 

 ed or are supposed to have worked, in this country in connection 

 with illustrations of American insects. As a result of this plan 

 we find included herein the names of many men of foreign birth 

 who were among the foremost illustrators of insects in this country, 

 but it also excludes a few distinguished men such as Herman Loew, 

 tor instance, who did much to advance the study of entomology 

 in this country, but who never even visited the United States. 

 However, this is scarcely to be avoided as time and space forbid 

 the preparation of a book on this subject at present. 



One of the earliest, if not the first, illustrator of North Ameri- 

 can insects was Mark Catesby, born in England in 1680, and who 

 made his first voyage to America in 1712, landing in Virginia in 

 April of that year. Catesby says he resided in America for 

 Geven years during this visit, returning to England in 1719, tak- 

 ing with him a collection of plants and products of the colonies 

 which created such intense interest as to induce him to return to 

 America for the purpose of making serious studies and collections 

 of the fauna and flora of the " Carolina " region. Accordingly he 

 returned to America in 1722 and during his subsequent explora- 

 tions lived among the Indians, as he says, "hunting Buffaloes, 

 Bears, Panthers and other wild Beasts," and engaged in paint- 

 ing objects of natural history. He spent four years in America 

 on this occasion, returning to England in 1726, where he died in 

 December, 1749. After his final return to Europe, Catesby 

 published a work in two volumes, of which the following is an 

 abridged title: "The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and 

 the Bahama Islands, Containing Figures of the Birds, Beasts, 

 Fishes, Insects, and Plants, etc., by Mark Catesby, F. R. S., 

 Printed at the expense of the author, London, MDCCXXXI- 

 MDCCXLIII." This is a quaint and interesting work of large 

 folio size, the text of which is printed in both French and Eng- 

 lish, as was then the fashion with such publications. The dedi- 

 cation of Catesby's first volume to Queen Caroline is a fine 

 example of what might appropriately be termed the anthology 

 of natural history. It seems well worth reproducing here: 



To the 



QUEEN 



MADAM: 



As these Volumes contain an Kssay towards the \iitnni/ Histwy ot" that Part 

 of Your MAJESTY'S Dominions, which is particularly honored by lieariim Your 



