124 THE entomologist's RECORD, 



lie had made because of a dealer supplying liim with a specimen com- 

 jiounded of the head of one species stuck on to the body of another. 

 Kecently however I have discovered that the dealer fraternity and fancy 

 prices for British insects existed at least twenty years earlier than 

 Haworth's time. Through the kindness of Mr. Davies of Kington I 

 have had an opportunity of examining A Catalocjiie of the Portland 

 Museum Sale, which is dated 1786, and in which the prices realised are 

 attached to every lot ; possibly it was the auctioneer's catalogue. 



Before j)roceeding to give some account of this interesting relic and 

 its contents, it may be not unprofitable to make an attempt to realise 

 the condition of things entomological in this said year of grace, 1786. 

 On the continent the new binomial system of nomenclature invented 

 by Linneeus had been generally adopted, and his classification was 

 almost universally followed. The Vienna Catalogue was little known ; 

 it was not till Fabricius called the attention of entomologists to it in his 

 Mantissa (1787) that it began to emerge from obscurity, and it was not 

 till 1793 that Hiibner began the work {Sammlung europdischer Schmetter- 

 linge) which elevated it into that position of suj)reme authority as re- 

 gards nomenclature which it for long occupied. Fabricius had produced 

 Si/stcma Eatomologiae, Genera Insectorum and Species Insectorum, and by 

 these, and still more by his personal influence exerted in his numerous 

 wanderings, had come to be a power in the entomological world. The 

 main bulk of those parts of Esper's great work,which relate to Ehopalocer a , 

 Sphinges, Bombyces and Noctu^, had been given to the world, and 

 four volumes of Cramer's Papillons Exotiques were published. Probably 

 the works which were in most general use at that time, in addition to 

 the 12th edition of the Systeina Naturae, were those of De Geer and 

 Geoff roi and the published volumes, five in number, of Papillons d' 

 Europe which generally go by the names of Ernst and Engramelle. 

 Hiibner was just coming into note, the first part of his Beitrdge having 

 made its appearance in the year of which we are speaking. In our own 

 country Berkenhout had introduced the Linnjean nomenclature in his 

 Outlines, which was probably the " Manual " of the entomologists of the 

 day, and Harris and Wilkes had brought out second editions of their 

 works in which the new names were more or less accurately attached to 

 indigenous species. Barbut, five years earlier, had illustrated the 

 Linna^an genera of the class Insecta by figures of a representative species 

 of each, drawn from nature. Drury's magnificent work on exotic 

 insects was in the hands of those who could afford to obtain it. The 

 Linneean cabinet had probably not yet readied this country, but nego- 

 tiations were rapidly a^jproaching comjiletion, if not already completed, 

 for its transfer here. Fabricius had visited England once at least, and 

 was in communication with some of our entomologists, specially with 

 Sir Joseph Banks. From the Species Insectorum we learn that many 

 notable collections existed in this country. Fabricius mentions those of 

 Banks, Hunter, Drury and Bloinfield in London ; of Lee at Hammer- 

 smith, and of Blackburn at Oxford. The jiatron saint of Entomology 

 was undoubtedly Sir Joseph Banks, who had been elected President of 

 the Koyal Society eight years previously, and who retained that post 

 till his death in 182U. To his industry in acquiring continental litera- 

 ture and to his generosity in making arrangements for the transfer of 

 his library to the nation after his death, the students of to-day are 

 gi'eatly indebted, for most of the cojjies of the works of " the Ancients " 

 which are now in the British Museum are from his librai'y. 



