PREFACE. 



THE plan of the original "Naturalist's Library" has not been 

 followed in the present volume, as it seemed to me better, in 

 the case of the Lepidoptera, not to separate the British species 

 from the exotic forms. Although numerous works on British 

 Insects have been published, there is none, I believe, exactly 

 on the plan of the present volume, where our native species of 

 Butterflies are described and figured, and at the same time a 

 review of their exotic relatives is attempted. 



No one more fitted for the task of writing such a review 

 could have been found than Mr. Kirby, whose "Synonymic 

 Catalogue of Diurnal Lepidoptera" is recognised as a stan- 

 dard book of reference; and the pains he has taken in the 

 preparation of the present Hand-book of the Lepidoptera 

 will, I trust, be the means of presenting to the public one more 

 of those useful essays on Entomology, with which his name has 

 been associated for the last thirty years. 



Some new plates have been added to the series published in 

 the former issue of the "Naturalist's Library," in order to render 

 the explanation of the different exotic genera more complete. 



The woodcuts in the text are taken from Newman's well- 

 known work on British Butterflies. 



R. BOWDLER SHARPS. 



