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XXVII. A Century of Insects, including several new Genera de- 

 scribed from his Cabinet. By the Rev. William Kirby, M.A. 

 F.R. and L.S. 



Read November ^, 18 [7- 



XiiE infinite host of non-descript insects occurring in tTie ento- 

 mological cabinets of this country, is rather disgraceful to us: 

 and what is more so, we permit foreigners to do that for us which 

 we are fully competent to do ourselves. Witness the numbers 

 described by Fabricius, Olivier, and others from British col- 

 lections. 



Pudet haec oppiol)ria nobis 

 Et dici potuiase et iion potuisse rcfellh. 



I am not, however, so illiberal as to wish that the entomologists 

 of the continent should be excluded from our cabinets : if we our- 

 selves are too idle, or too busy, to give the public some account 

 of our entomological treasures, it is for the interest of science that 

 they should do it for us. 



To remoA'e, in some degree, this opprobrium, I beg leave to 

 offer to the Linnean Society descriptions of a century of the non- 

 descript insects of my own cabinet. Should this attempt meet 

 with approbation, I may be induced, perhap, to decribe the re- 

 mainder; and I wish that my example may stimulate other gen- 

 tlemen to do the same with respect to their own collections. 



In my general arrangement 1 have followed that of my kind 



aiuli 



