INTRODUCTION. 71 



by Dr. Smith; but the design is now abandoned. 

 The healthy and peaceful occupations of this meri- 

 torious entomologist has led to great length of life ; 

 for we had the pleasure of receiving a collection of 

 insects from him only tw T o years ago. He is pro- 

 bably now above eighty." * 



This splendid work is in two large folio volumes, 

 and contains one hundred and four plates, of which 

 no fewer than eighty are devoted to the crepuscular 

 and nocturnal Lepidoptera. In almost every in- 

 stance both sexes are figured, along with the larva, 

 and the plant it frequents. There are no descrip- 

 tions ; and rather a paucity of details regarding the 

 general history of the respective species. It deserves, 

 notwithstanding, to occupy a very high place among 

 the illustrated works which have advanced our 

 knowledge of the tribe of insects of which we are 

 now treating. 



The various works of Donovan on the insects of 

 China, India, and New Holland, although chiefly 

 occupied with other tribes, furnish not a few highly 

 finished delineations of beautiful and interesting 

 moths from these several countries. They were 

 published at intervals between the years 1799 and 

 1805. 



For originality, pains-taking, and a successful 

 elucidation of the subject taken in hand, few works 

 surpass the small publication of J. W. Lewin on 

 the lepidopterous insects of New South Wales. It 

 forms a thin quarto, with nineteen plates, engraved 

 * Swainson, Lard. Cyclop., vol. cxxvi. p. 99. 



