PREFACE. 



It must be acknowledged that the very rapid progress which 

 every science for some years past has made in this country, 

 is greatly to be attributed to Elementary works, and at the 

 same time it is to be regretted that as yet none has appeared 

 on the practical part of Entomolog\-, by which I mean the 

 method of collecting and preserving insects, the elements of 

 the science, &LC. It is true such a work is announced, and it 

 is hoped will shortly appear ; I allude to the completion of 

 Messrs. Kirby and Spence's Introduction to Entomology.— 

 From the profound knowledge of the subject which these ex- 

 cellent authors possess, we certainly may expect a most com- 

 plete work ; yet its extent, and the necessary expense of at least 

 four octavo volumes, must exclude many from purchasing it, 

 and especially young persons to whom the study of Entomo- 

 logy is particularly adapted. 



From this consideration I was induced more than twelve 

 months ago to begin a work, the mere outline of the present, 

 and which was intended to comprise little more than the 

 Linnean Genera, Vxith a slight notice of the more natural 

 Genera which had been separated from them, with references 

 to the best essays or papers that had been published on the 

 subject, and directions for collecting, &c. This was to have 

 been published in duodecimo, and would have made but a thin 



