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entomological bias. It was in the autumn of the year 1821 that I 

 came up to London to be articled in a profession. For the next six 

 months, however, instead of studying Coke upon Lyttleton, I greedily 

 devoured all the information to be obtained from Samouelle's Com- 

 pendium, Haworth's ' Lepidoptera Britannica,' Shaw's Zoology, and 

 other similar works ; and it then struck me that a small volume, con- 

 taining a few concise chapters on Entomology in general, the external 

 anatomy and transformations of insects, with the characters of the or- 

 der Lepidoptera and its genera, followed by the description of each 

 butterfly translated from Haworth's work, would form a useful hand- 

 book for beginners like myself. A great portion of it was written, but 

 something else interfered, and the manuscript was locked up in the 

 drawer of an old writing-desk, where it has ever since slumbered. 



Thus, Sir, you perceive that the study of our British Lepidoptera 

 is no new freak of fancy, nor taken up for the purpose of writing the 

 works on which I am now engaged. I am however as fully aware of 

 the difficulties with which the study of the Noctuida3 is encompassed 

 as yourself, but I rely not on my own skill. Much has been done 

 both at home and abroad, of which I shall avail myself; and kind 

 friends, who know more of the subject than I do, have promised me 

 their assistance : my motto therefore is — " Nil desperandum.'''' 



I remain. Dear Sir, 



Yours very truly, 



Jno. O. Westwood. 



To the Editor of ' The Entomologist.' 



[Of course no author would be quite satisfied with a review unless written by him- 

 self, which the plan of ' The Entomologist' precludes, as I invariably attach my sig- 

 nature to each notice : however, as Mr. Westwood thinks proper to defend the supposed 

 defects pointed out, I will add a word more. 1. Colias Edusa : I have said " This is 

 Papilio Electra of Linneus " ; surely, in disproving this, courtesy required something 

 more than Mr. Westwood's assertion — "Colias Edusa is not the Papilio Electra of 

 Linnaeus." 2. Leptoria Candida : Mr. Westwood tells us he has sunk the Linnean 

 name Sinapis, because " the insect has nothing on earth to do with Sinapis, or the tribe 

 of plants to which it belongs." So might we sink the names Antiopa, Lathonia, Po- 

 dalirius and Chryseis, because the insects have nothing on earth to do with the fabu- 

 lous beings whose names they bear ; and we might rechristen these species, Askewii, 

 Jamrachii, Argentii and Tuckerii, in compliment to those distinguished entomologists 

 who supply us with these delicacies on such liberal terms : these names, moreover, 

 would hannonize better with modern nomenclature. 3. Each of these four species 

 might also have a new generic name, if we formed the genus so as to squeeze into it 

 a species not contemplated by Hubner. 4. In refutation of my hint as to Mr. West- 

 wood's being incompetent to describe the Noctuse, that gentleman replies that he re- 

 lies not on his own skill ; kind friends, who know more of the subject than himself, 



