JANUARY- 33 



wonderful instincts, powers, and I may add, 

 passions, comprised; their habits are so curi- 

 ous, extraordinary, and varied their forms so 

 splendid and beautiful some in their silken 

 robes, some in their blue and burnished ar- 

 mour, some with their glowing and gorgeous 

 wings, transparent as crystal, or feathered like 

 the peacock ; they effect such vast designs 

 with such small means, and they so haunt all 

 corners of the habitable globe, that I can con- 

 ceive no portion of all God's wonderful crea- 

 tures, more capable of, at once, fascinating the 

 attention, charming the fancy, or exciting the 

 highest admiration in the most intelligent minds. 

 I regret that out of upwards of ten thousand 

 indigenous insects, my catalogue must be con- 

 fined to a very few the most splendid, the 

 most conspicuous, the most curious, and the 

 most populai- such, in fact, as the general 

 lover of nature will be most likely to meet with 

 in his walks, without much seeking after. 



