THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



No. XVII. 



MARCH, MDCCCXLIl. 



Price 6d. 



Art. LXIX. — Analytical Notice of British Butterflies and their 

 Transformations, arranged and illustrated in a series of Plates, 

 by H. N. Humphreys, pjsq., icitli Characters and BescrijJtions 

 by J. O. Westwood, Esq., F.L.S., Sec. of the Entomological 

 Society, Etc. Etc. London : W. Smith, Fleet St., 4to. 



Entwined with my earliest recollections are the images of some of 

 our British Butterflies. On Hamp stead Heath I have watched the 

 beautiful Atalanta circling round and settling on the blossoms of the 

 scabious ; and the brilliant colours of Urticae were also familiar to 

 me at that early age when little boys can walk, but soon grow tired 

 and like best to be carried. This love of Butterflies never forsook me 

 through my boyish days ; and, aided by Berkenhout, I managed to 

 acquire a knowledge, not very profound certainly, of our British spe- 

 cies. An introduction to John Howard, at that period a near neigh- 

 bour of my father's, opened up new treasures for me, and I gazed with 

 perfect wonder on the coppers he had received from Whittlesea, and 

 the emperors taken in his own garden. I grew dissatisfied with Berk- 

 enhout, and, for my own accommodation and instruction, wi'ote ' A 

 History of British Butterflies : ' this is still in existence, and is dated 

 1822. Two years afterwards I thought seriously of publishing this 

 History, when (in 1824) I accidentally saw in a shop window Miss 

 Jermyn's ' Butterfly Collector's Vade Mecum,' and this convinced me 

 that I was rather behind-hand in my information on the subject : then 

 came a second edition of the Vade Mecum (1827), and then 'British 

 Butterflies, their Distinctions, generic and specific, &c.' (1828) ; and 

 since that time Mr. Duncan's volume in ' The Naturalist's Library ; ' 

 and lastly, Messrs. Humphreys and Westwood. 



The subject is still so agreeable to me that I regard with feelings of 

 approval every fresh work on British butterflies, however much it may 

 interfere with my imaginary copyright ; and I have concluded, in pa- 

 tience of spirit, to " bide my time," fondly thinking, as I turn over the 

 pages of each new History, — "I will do better." It seems to me a 

 fault in all these works, that they aim at giving the greatest possible 



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