16 
older (1810-15), more battered African specimens should be 
accounted for, than of the comparatively fresh material in the 
younger (1825-30) and far larger Brazilian collection. A very 
valuable catalogue of the whole collection made, soon after its 
arrival in Oxford, under the direction of Professor Westwood, 
and in part by his own hands, has been and will be of the 
utmost assistance in determining how far the Brazilian collec- 
tion was complete when it reached Oxford (Ann. Mag. Nat. 
Hist. 1904, p. 306). Professor Westwood took the keenest 
interest in the Burchell Collection and appreciated the 
immense value of its geographical data, of which he showed 
the importance in a paper read before the Ashmolean Society 
on Nov. 26, 1866 (see “ Proceedings,” also Ann. Mag. Nat. 
Hist., 1904, pp. 307, 308). Although he only determined 
a small proportion of the species, many of those which he 
studied were obscure and difficult, and his identifications have 
been of the utmost value in the present work. 
Much assistance has been rendered in the search by the 
presence of a large printed “ Burchell Coll.” label affixed to 
the specimens in Oxford, but for this very reason the small 
proportion without this label was extremely hard to find. 
Thus several very important African specimens bore a smaller 
label with the same words in the handwriting of Professor 
Westwood. Some few had no label at all except Burchell’s 
reference number, which being small was generally concealed 
by the insect itself. The difficulty was rarely increased by 
actual mistakes or transpositions. One of the ants referred to 
and figured by Burchell (“Southern Africa,” London, 1822, 
pp. 448, 449) was labelled “China,” but the mistake was easily 
demonstrated by the reference number, the determination of 
the species and the character of the pin. All Chinese 
specimens in Burchell’s possession (none captured by himself) 
were transfixed by needles. Almost the only mistakes made 
in Oxford occur among the African butterflies and moths; 
and they are easily accounted for. When the collection 
arrived in 1865, the bodies of many of these insects had been 
eaten away, and the wings, often in a fragmentary condition, 
