PREFACE. 



IT is now about four-and-twenty years ago, that, 

 in a land far remote from this, I began the study 

 of systematic zoology, with INSECTS. It is, beyond 

 all comparison, the most extensive Class of animals, 

 in fact all but boundless ; but in my ignorance I 

 attacked it entire and indivisible, collecting and 

 trying hard to identify everything that I found, 

 from the Cicindela to the Podura. I had not an 

 atom of assistance toward the identification, but 

 the brief, highly condensed, and technical generic 

 characters of Linnseus's " Systema Nature," over 

 which I puzzled my brains, specimens in hand, 

 many an hour. Of course there was much dark- 

 ness, there were many egregious blunders ; but 

 perseverance did a good deal, and I have never 

 regretted the time spent in that exercise. The 

 leading forms of that great Class were familiarized 

 to me in a way that they never would have 

 been, if I had merely learned their names from 

 coloured engravings, or from the oral information 

 of some more learned friend ; and what was of far 



