202 AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 



The late Prof. Peck, of Cambridge, Mass., was perhaps the next per- 

 son after the elder Melsheiraer, who paid any considerable attention to 

 the subject. His descriptions of various species especially injurious to 

 vegetation, were published in Agricultural Journals. He confines his 

 attention, for the most part, to the economical department of the science, 

 which is very important. I have the titles of all his papers with the 

 publications in which they appeared, but I have no room to transcribe 

 them. 



The first illustrated work on American insects that ever appeared, 

 and which belongs to this period of our history, is The Natural His- 

 tory of the rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia, collected from the 

 drawings and observations of Mr. John Abbot. This splendid work ap- 

 peared in London in 1797, in two large folios, and was edited by Sir 

 James Smith. There are but few copies of the work in this country, 

 one of which is in the Library of Congress. It contains figures and 

 short descriptions of 103 of our Lepidopterous insects. Swainson pro- 

 nounces it to be " one of the most beautiful and most valuable illustra- 

 ted publications that England or any other country can boast of." 



Catesby's great work on The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, 

 and the Bahama Isles, (of which there is a copy in the Baltimore Li- 

 brary,) appeared some years before Abbot's, but it contains only 24 in- 

 sects figured and described in the two ponderous folios. 



The next laborer in this inviting field is the celebrated Say. He has 

 acquired an undying fame by his indefatigable industry and enthusiastic 

 devotion to this pursuit — by his extensive travels in our country in its 

 prosecution — by his numerous writings on the subject, and his extensive 

 correspondence with foreign entomologists. He furnished fifty-four pa- 

 pers of various length for the journals, besides three volumes containing 

 beautiful figures of the species described. He describes 1150 coleoptera, 

 22-5 diptera, 100 hemiptera, and 100 species of other orders. Say is the 

 magnus Apollo of American Entomologists, and will ever be regarded 

 as one of the acutest naturalists this or any other country has produced 

 during this century. He died in the full vigor of manhood, (aet. 46.) 

 I have the titles of all his papers, and possess most of the papers them- 

 selves, which I regard as almost invaluable. 



Major Leconte's labors in this field properly belong to this period. 

 This eminent naturalist (yet living) has never published much, but his 

 services have been invaluable. There are several of his contributions 

 in the scientific journals, but his chief work is the part he bore in pro- 

 ducing that magnificent foreign work, Boisduval and Leconte's Histoire 

 generale dcs LepidopLeres de V Amcrique scptenlrlonale. He furnished 



