170 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



In 1S46, Edward Doubleday commenced a large work 

 entitled " Genera of Diurnal Lepidoptera ^^' \\\{\ch. was illustrated 

 by W. C. Hevvitson, who had lately taken up the study of 

 Butterflies. After Doubleday's death, the work was carried on 

 by Prof. J. O. Westwood. It forms two folio volumes, with 

 eighty-eight coloured plates, and may be said to have inaugu- 

 rated the modern era of the study of Butterflies. (Cf. vol. i. p. 5). 



By this time Hewitson had completely abandoned the study 

 of British Entomology and Oology, and had resolved to devote 

 the rest of his life to Exotic Ltpidoptera. With the colla- 

 boration, in the first instance, of W. Wilson Saunders (a 

 liberal patron of Entomology, who amassed a fine collection 

 of insects of all orders, though his business engagements 

 precluded him from working much at them himself), 

 Hewitson commenced an illustrated work, entitled " Exotic 

 Butterflies," in 1S51. It was issued in quarterly parts, con- 

 taining three plates each, and continued to appear till 1877, 

 when Ave volumes, of sixty plates each, had appeared, a large 

 proportion of the species flgured being derived from the 

 exertions of three travelling naturalists : Bates and Wallace on 

 the Amazons ; Wallace in the Malay Archipelago; and Buckley 

 in Ecuador and Bolivia. For many years Hewitson's collection 

 remained unrivalled, and at his death he bequeathed his whole 

 collection, contained in seven magnihcent cabinets, to the 

 British Museum. He confined his attention exclusively to 

 Butterflies, and he used to say that if he were to commence 

 the formation of a collection of Moths as well, he would have 

 to build himself a larger house. 



In 1887 a work on similar lines w^as commenced by Messrs. 

 H. Grose Smith and W. F. Kirby (in quarterly parts of three 

 plates, and volumes of fifty plates each), the second volume of 

 which will be completed with the publicati.n of the part for 

 April, 1897. 



