PREFACE. xvli 



dices which prevail on this subject. ''Old impressions," as Reau- 

 mur has well observed, "are with difficulty effiiced. They are 

 weakened, they appear unjust even to those who feel them, at the 

 moment they are attacked by arguments which are unanswerable ; 

 but the next instant the proofs are fox'gotten, and the perverse 

 association resumes its empire." 



The Authors do not know that any curiosity will be excited to 

 ascertain what share has been contributed to the work by each of 

 them ; but if there should, it is a curiosity they must be excused 

 from gratifying. United in the bonds of a friendship, which, 

 though they have to thank Entomology for giving birth to it, is 

 founded upon a more solid basis than mere community of scientific 

 pursuits, they wish that, whether blame or praise is the fate of their 

 labours, it may be jointly awarded. All that they think necessary 

 to state is, that the composition of each of the different depart- 

 ments of the work has been, as nearly as possible, divided between 

 them ; that though the letter, or series of letters, on any particular 

 subject, has been usually undertaken by one, some of the facts and 

 illustrations have generally been supplied by the other, and there 

 are a few to which they have jointly contributed ; and that 

 throughout, the facts for which no other authority is quoted, are 

 to be considered as resting upon that of one or other of the 

 authors, but not always of him, who, from local allusions, may be 

 conceived the writer of the letter in which they are inti'oduced, as 

 the matter furnished by each to the letters of the other must 

 necessarily be given in the person of the supposed writer. 



In acknowledging their obligations to their friends, the first 

 place is due to Simon Wilkin, Esq. of Costessey near Norwich, to 

 whose liberality they are indebted for the plates which illustrate 

 and adorn the work, which have been drawn and engraved at his 

 expense by Mr. John Curtis, whose intimate acquaintance with 

 the subject has enabled him to give to the figures an accuracy 

 which they could not have received from one less conversant with 

 the science.* 



* This refers to tlie year 1815, when the first volume of this work was pub- 

 lished. In the twenty-seven years since elapsed, Mr. Curtls's Entomological 

 labours, and especially his British Entomology in sixteen volumes, equally 

 admirable for its scientific and artistical excellence, have deservedly gained him 

 a very high reputation wherever the science is cultivated. (1842.) 



a 



