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his merits, what important services he has rendered to Entomology. You will all 

 agree with me, that had he published no other work than his ' Monographia Apum 

 Anglia;,' his first separate one, which appeared in 1802, he would have ranked as one 

 of the first Entomologists of the age: a title which was at once assigned to him by 

 every student of the science, foreign as well as British, capable of estimating the un- 

 wearied perseverance with which he had collected his materials, the value of his new 

 observations on the anatomy of bees, and the large and philosophical grasp with which 

 he had arranged them, under the families (or, as they are now considered, genera) 

 into which he distributed them. Nothing can show more strikingly the ardour of his 

 zeal for the science, than the fact that he took lessons in the art of etching, to enable 

 him to give from his own hand, sketches of the parts of the mouth, on which his 

 family characters mainly depended. But when to this great work we add his ' Mono- 

 graph of Apion,' ' Century of Insects,' memoir ' on the order Strepsiptera,' and other 

 valuable papers in the ' Transactions of the Linnean Society ;' the ' Introduction to 

 Entomology,' written in conjunction with myself; the Entomological portion of his 

 ' Bridgewater Treatise,' ' On the History, Habits and Instincts of Animals;' and the 

 ' Description of the Insects of the northern parts of British America,' occupying a 

 quarto volume of Sir John Richardson's ' Fauna Boreali- Americana,' it will be evident 

 how extensively and successfully he has cultivated our favourite science, and how 

 deeply it is indebted to him. 



" It will always be to me a scource of self-gratulation, that about the year 1808, 

 when we were in active correspondence respecting British insects, the idea occurred 

 to me of proposing to my excellent friend that we should write an Introduction to En- 

 tomology together, and that further consideration led me (as explained in our preface, 

 which, on that account, Mr. Kirby would have me write *) to advise our giving it a 

 popular form, as it was this form which enabled him to interweave in it, under their 

 respective heads, the great number of detached observations from his note-book, col- 

 lected during many years, on the economy and habits of insects, which would other- 

 wise, in all probability, have been lost to the world, and which, independently of its 

 scientific merit, of which, I need not say, that by far the largest share belongs to my 

 revered coadjutor, stamped it with an originality, that elementary works can rarely 

 claim. 



" I should be negligent of the interest of the rising race of Entomologists if I 

 omitted to mention for their imitation, one of the peculiar features of Mr. Kirby's in- 

 vestigations of insects, deeply impressed on my recollection, during my long inter- 

 course with him as a visitor at Barham, often for months together, in several years, 

 when we were engaged in the preparation of our work, namely, the patient and minute 

 examination which he always gave to the subject in hand, and the slow and cautious 

 way in which he drew his conclusions, which on this account were almost always 

 correct. 



" One concluding remark I must make with reference to the vast amount of additi- 

 onal enjoyment which our revered friend derived from the study of Entomology. 

 Simply as a pious country-clergyman, conscienciously fulfilling all the duties of his 

 office, and beloved by his parishioners of every class, and as one of the most friendly, 



* The paragraphs towards the middle, relative to the religious bearing of our work, 

 were added by Mr. Kirbv. 



