MEMOIR OF DRURY. 2? 



occasion, namely, as an intelligent and indefatigable 

 cultivator of Natural History. 



Entomology was the subject to which he was 

 most ardently attached, although it is evident from 

 his letters that he did not altogether neglect some 

 of the other departments. It does not appear 

 what first attracted his attention to this study, 

 nor at what time he first began* to prosecute it, 

 but it was probably at an early period of his life. 

 "Writing to general Ranger, in 1 778, he states that 

 he had been employed thirty years in forming his 

 collection of insects, so that he must have com- 

 menced about the time when he first engaged in 

 business on his own account. Much of the earliest 

 portion of his correspondence that has been pre- 

 served, consists of letters to individuals residing in 

 foreign countries, soliciting them to transmit speci- 

 mens to him. He seems to have neglected no 

 opportunity that presented itself at all likely to 

 promote his views, and the time and trouble he 

 spent on the subject must have been great The 

 letters in question are generally of great length, 

 written with much care, and giving detailed direc- 

 tion about the best mode of collecting, preserving, 

 &c. A specimen of them has already been published 

 by Mr. AVestwood in his recent edition of Drury's 

 Illustrations of Natural History, from a great num- 

 ber now before us, equally long and elaborate, we 

 select the following : it is addressed to Captain 

 Mayle, of the Hound sloop of war, going to the 

 coast of Africa. 



