X PREFACE. 



wonderful phenomena of alternate generations; and, if we would not remain behind in the 

 generous race now running in science, we must take good care, while we investigate our 

 Fauna and describe our new species, to combine the investigation with all those considera- 

 tions which give true dignity to science, and raise it above the play of the mere collector. 

 I must beg my European readers to remember, that this work is written in America, 

 and more especially for America ; and that the community to which it is particularly 

 addressed has very different wants from those of the reading public in Europe. There is 

 not a class of learned men here, distinct from the other cultivated members of the com- 

 munity. On the contrary, so general is the desire for knowledge, that I expect to see my 

 book read by operatives, by fishermen, by farmers, quite as extensively as by the students 

 in our colleges, or by the learned professions ; and it is but proper that I should endeavor 

 to make myself understood by all. 



Lieber, — whose testimony cannot be questioned, as, like myself, he did not first see 

 the lio-ht of day in America, — justly remarks, what is particularly true of the United 

 States, "that one of the characteristic features of the nineteenth century in the great 

 history of the western Caucasian race, is a yearning for knowledge and culture far more 

 general than has ever existed at any previous period on the one hand, and on the other 

 a readiness and corresponding desire in the votaries of knowledge to diffuse it, — to make 

 the many millions share in its treasures and benefits." ^ 



It must not be overlooked also, that, while our scientific libraries are still very defective, 

 there is a class of elementary works upon Natural History widely circulated in Europe, and 

 accompanied with numerous illustrations, which are still entirely unknown in tliis country. 

 In most of our public libraries there are no copies of such works as Swammerdam, 

 Roesel, Reaumur, Lyonet, etc., nor any thing, within the reach of the young, like those 

 innumerable popular publications, such as Sturm's Fauna, the Insect Almanachs, Bertuch's 

 Bilderbuch, and the neatly illustrated school-books published in Esslingen, or like the series 

 of valuable treatises illustrating the Natural History of England, and the popular sea-side 

 books, which, in the Old World, are to be found in the hands of every child. The only 

 good book upon Insects in general, yet printed in America, is " Harris's Treatise on the 

 Insects injurioirs to Vegetation in Massachusetts"; and that book does not contain even a 

 single wood-cut. There has not yet been published a single text-book embracing the 

 whole animal kingdom. This may explain the necessity I have felt of introducing fre- 

 quently in my illustrations, details which, to a professional naturalist, might seem entirely 



out of place. 



I have a few words more to say respecting the fii-st two volumes, now ready for pub- 

 lication. Considering the uncertainty of human life, I have wished to bring out at once 



' Columbia Atheuicura Lecture, by Francis Lieber, Columbia, S. C, 1856, p. 7. 



