56 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY 



Of illustrated works belonging to this school, 

 there are two of great merit. Fabricius found 

 a powerful supporter in the celebrated French 

 entomologist Olivier*, who, after travelling exten- 

 sively in Turkey, Egypt, and Persia, returned, and 

 commenced his great work upon coleopterous in- 

 sects ; the richest in figures and in description we 

 yet possess. Rcemerf, also, has illustrated the 

 genera of Fabricius with remarkably good figures, 

 drawn with a boldness rarely seen in those of other 

 artists. But the most splendid work of this descrip- 

 tion relative to British insects, which appeared in 

 this era, is the Aurelian of Moses Harris J, the 

 executor of Drury's figures, already mentioned, 

 and whose beautiful plates far exceed those of 

 Albin, Wilks, or Donovan, on the same subject. 

 Harris cannot be regarded as a scientific entomolo- 

 gist, yet it is curious to trace the perception he had 

 of natural arrangement. He was the first, in fact, 

 who distributed all the British Diurnal Lepidoptera 

 into those genera termed modern, long before those 

 who have the credit of so doing were born. The 

 excessive rarity of the little tract which substantiates 

 this fact, so honourable to our countryman, is no 

 doubt the Teason why it has never been noticed §, a 



* Olivier. Entomologie, ou Histoire Naturelle des In- 

 sectes. Paris, 1789 — 1808. 5 vols. 4to. 



f J. J. Rcemer. Genera Insectorum Linnaei et Fabricii 

 Iconibus illustrata. Vit. Helv. 1789. 4to. 



| Moses Harris. The Aurelian ; or, Natural History of 

 English Insects, namely, Moths and Butterflies. London, 

 1778. folio. 



§ Moses Harris. An Essay preceding a Supplement to the 



