234 [March, 



We became acquainted with one another in the summer of 1858, when both 

 wore beginning to take up the study of the Macro-Lepidoptera to some purpose ; he 

 wrote to me for eggs of Smerinthus tilicB, which I had offered in the Intelligencer to 

 give away : this was my first and last time of making an offer of this sort, for it 

 opened upon me such an experience of the lengths to which the amor hahendi urges 

 many collectors, that I never again ventured on inviting their applications ; but it 

 also procured for me one of the most solid and satisfactory pleasures of my life — the 

 friendship of William Buckler. There must have been something in his letter, 

 which at once drew me to him, for very soon we had become constant correspondents : 

 Stainton's Manual with its descriptions of larvte all taken from foreign authors, had 

 stung us into desiring to wipe off what seemed a blot on the fair fame of British 

 Entomologists ; I had, like many others, who for a time have taken in hand such a 

 scheme for themselves, begun to figure such larvae as I could get hold of, but when I 

 found tliat Mr. Buckler, possessing the trained skiU of a first-rate artist, and — since 

 photography had taken away his occupation — having time at his disposal, had formed 

 a similar plan, it at once became apparent that the best thing for me was to supply 

 him with subjects, and thus set him free to devote more pains to their delineation ; 

 but he would not accept help without making some return ; so a sort of treaty was 

 drawn up and signed, pledging me to send him all the larvae I possibly could, and 

 he in return was to give me his first figures, after he had copied them into his 

 interleaved Manual. What a spur this was to my collecting energy, then in its first 

 freshness and zeal, to know that everything was to be figured in life-like style, and 

 to expect to become the possessor of a whole gallery of larval portraits ! Through 

 the summer months of 1859, and many succeeding years, we wrote to one another 

 almost every day, and often after a letter or a box had been despatched by the 

 afternoon's post, a second epistle was begun at night to announce some fresh 

 acquisition, whicli he was to make ready to pourtray as soon as he had finished the 

 subjects already in hand. At first I doubt if there was any definite purpose of 

 publishing more than descriptions, the figures being intended chiefly as memoranda, 

 but as time went on, and the Manual pages became more and more filled, the 

 intention of publishing an illustrated book became fully settled, and Mr. Buckler 

 worked on towards that end with ever-growing interest and zeal, and before his 

 death had figured more than 850 species, in most cases to the extent of five or six 

 varieties, or stages of growth, and in several to the extent of a dozen or fifteen ; in 

 1873 lie reckoned he had done at least 5000 figures, and since that time must have 

 added many more, for he has left more than 4500 among the materials amassed for 

 his projected work, while I possess some 1800 of his doing, and there must be 

 several in the possession of others ; he left also four volumes of MS. notes, from 

 which were extracted the substance of his numerous communications to this 

 Magazine, which he looked upon as acknowledgments for help given, and as keeping 

 alive an interest in his doings ; but there remains over and above these a considerable 

 quantity of observations never yet published. 



When lie first began, fishing and boating, and other recreations, still held their 

 Bway over him, and would sometimes interfere with the figuring of a larva ; the 

 yearly visit to London for a sight of the Royal Academy Exhibition was a fixed 

 holiday, and larvae that came to maturity whilst he was thus engaged had to spin up 

 unfigui'cd ; but for many years all this had been changed ; all his other movements 



