viii PREFACE. 



I very soon decided, that until I had done something 

 towards naming and describing the most important groups 

 in my collection, and had worked out some of the more 

 interesting problems of variation and geographical distri- 

 bution, of which I had had glimpses while collecting them, 

 T would not attempt to publish my travels. I could, 

 indeed, at once have printed my notes and journals, 

 leaving all reference to questions of natural history for a 

 future work ; but I felt that this would be as unsatis- 

 factory to myself, as it would be disappointing to my 

 friends, and uninstructive to the public. 



Since my return, up to this date, I have published 

 eighteen papers, in the Transactions or Proceedings of the 

 Linmean Zoological and Entomological Societies, describing 

 or cataloguing portions of my collections ; besides twelve 

 others in various scientific periodicals, on more general 

 subjects connected with them. 



Nearly two thousand of my Coleoptera, and many 

 hundreds of my butterflies, have been already described 

 by various eminent naturalists, British and foreign ; but 

 a much larger number remains undescribed. Among those 

 to whom science is most indebted for this laborious work, 



