66 INTRODUCTION, 



from drawings by Moses Harris, * by far the best 

 painter and engraver of such subjects in his day, 

 and likewise a man of original observation, and 

 warmly attached to the study of insects. Dru 

 Drury was a London goldsmith, in good circum- 

 stances, who expended much time and money in 

 prosecuting this study. He purchased almost every 

 collection of any value that could be obtained, and 

 contributed largely to defray the expenses of various 

 individuals who were sent to different countries, 

 principally for the purpose of collecting objects of 

 natural history. The collection amassed by such 

 means became of great extent and value ; contain- 

 ing upwards of eleven thousand species and varieties, 

 of which little short of three thousand were Lepi- 

 doptera. " There may be in Holland," says Drury 

 himself, in one of the printed circulars which he 

 distributed with a view to its sale, " collections 

 more numerous (having in many instances a great 

 number of single species), yet no collection abounds 

 with such a wonderful variety in all the different 

 genera as this. All the specimens of which it is 

 composed are in the highest and most exquisite 

 state of preservation such an extensive collection 

 can be supposed to be, and a very considerable 

 number are unique, such as are to be found in no 

 other cabinet whatever, and of considerable value ; 

 many of which, coming from countries exceedingly 

 unhealthy, where the collectors, in procuring them, 



* All the plates of the two first volumes are by Harris, but 

 some of those in the third volume are by a different hand. 



