BRITISH BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 109 



what had been assigned to him with great care and 

 ability. 



It will give some faint idea of the labour involved 

 in completing this work on British Moths when it is 

 stated that it was begun in August 1859, and was 

 not brought to a conclusion until November n, 

 1870, the issue of the four octavo volumes thus ex- 

 tending over a period of eleven years. The task 

 which the author set before himself was, however, 

 in the end faithfully carried out. 



When he was engaged upon his " History of 

 British Birds" and other works his friends used 

 frequently to inquire how he could possibly manage 

 to do so many things at a time ; but, as he said in 

 the preface to the fourth volume of the "British 

 Moths," they put the question "in the most pro- 

 found and utter ignorance of all that I had on my 

 hands in one way and another, namely, in addition 

 to the ordinary, and I hope anything but neglected, 

 duties of a large and laborious parish, my former 

 one, and to say nothing of various worldly cares of 

 a most perplexing and harassing character, the pro- 

 viding the ' writing materials' every month regu- 

 larly for five separate works, the ' British Birds,' 

 the ' British Butterflies,' the Aphorismata Entomo- 

 logica, the ' Bible Natural History,' and the * His- 

 tory of the Nests and Eggs of British Birds.' But 

 thank God for good health, and for that which, as I 

 have said before, I have always contended is far 

 before even good health, as a worldly blessing, a 

 good spirit. 



