VI PREFACE. 



had but few opportunities of making known to the world the 

 results of his labours. To prevent these results from being 

 lost to science was my main object ; and it appeared to me 

 that this would be effectually attained by the compilation of a 

 Catalogue such as the present, which should embrace as far as 

 possible all the information he had gathered, whether extracted 

 from letters addressed to his friends, from fragmentary diaries, 

 or from detached memorandums, as well as that which was 

 contained in his ' Egg-book,' — this latter being the principal 

 record of his experience, and having been, with some few ex- 

 ceptions, most carefully kept for many years. 



In preparing this work for the press, the plan I have adopted 

 has been to bring together systematically all the notes relating 

 to the same species, and arrange them for the most part in the 

 order of the time at which they were written. I have not 

 scrupled to add an account of such specimens as I have lately ob- 

 tained, and of those which were included in the joint collection 

 formed by my brother Edward and myself, prior to its incor- 

 poration with the contents of Mr. Wolley's cabinets. In 

 doing this, I believe I have only acted as my late friend would 

 have wished; for I am sure that, in leaving his collection to 

 me, he expected that I should continue to make it as perfect as 

 I could. These interpolations, however, are in all cases typo- 

 graphically distinguished from Mr. Wolley's text; so that 

 there is no fear of my words being mistaken for his. 



I regret being unable to give even an approximate estimate 

 of the extent of the ' Ootheca WoUeyana.' I am well aware 

 that uncertainty on this point will be as unfavourable to myself 

 as it may be inconvenient to the j)ublic. I shall endeavour to 



