THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 151 



Georgia that he owned land there, and all that can be learned of him 

 comes from persons beyond middle life in that State, who remember hear- 

 ing their parents speak of him. Col. Charles C. Jones, the Georgia 

 historian, informs me through Dr. Oemler that ; ' while he remained in 

 Georgia, in the prosecution of his scientific labors, his head-quarters were 

 at Jacksonborough, then the county seat of Scriven County. Here his 

 work on the Lepidoptera of Georgia was largely prepared. All traces of 

 this old town have now passed away." It is supposed that he also em- 

 ployed himself as a school-master in this place, but this is purely traditional, 

 and his occasional bungling, not to say ungrammatical sentences, rather 

 indicate a lack of schooling on his own part. What we certainly know 

 regarding him is that he entered into relations with John Francillon, a 

 silversmith in the Strand, London, who had a famous collection of insects 

 and an extensive entomological correspondence. Francillon undertook to 

 supply subscribers with drawings of insects and plants by Abbot, as well 

 as with specimens, the latter of which, says Swainson, "were certainly 

 the finest that have ever been transmitted as articles of commerce to this 

 country ; they were always sent home expanded, even the most minute ; 

 and he was so watchful and indefatigable in his researches, that he contrived 

 to breed nearly the whole of the Lepidoptera. His general price for a 

 box-full was sixpence each specimen ; which was certainly not too much, 

 considering the beauty and high perfection of all the individuals. Abbot, 

 however, was not a mere collector. Every moment of time he could 

 possibly devote from his field researches was employed in making finished 

 drawings of the larva, pupa, and perfect insect of every lepidopterous 

 species, as well as of the plant upon which it fed. These drawings are so 

 beautifully chaste and wonderfully correct, that they were coveted by every 

 one." It would appear from a note in Kirby and Spence's Introduction 

 to Entomology (5th ed., hi., 148) that " the ingenious Mr. Abbot " also 

 knew the art of inflating caterpillar skins, and dealt in them through 

 Francillon. (See many other references in the same volume.) There still 

 exist in various places, principally in the British Museum, but also at 

 Oxford, Paris and Zurich, and in this country at Boston, large series of 

 his drawings of insects and plants. Those in the British Museum are 

 arranged in sixteen stout quarto volumes, bound in red morocco ; each 

 volume has a printed title page and is dated 1792 to 1809, the dates no 

 doubt between which they were purchased for the Museum through 

 Francillon from Abbot, and which probably indicated the period of his 



