202 MIMICEY IN N. AMEEICAN BUTTERFLIES 



the Beagle, and is of peculiar interest because so 

 few of Darwin's letters of this early date have 

 been preserved. The letter clearly exhibits the 

 keen interest which Darwin took in the working 

 out of his collections, and the free and generous 

 use he made of his material. A number of Diptera 

 captured by him in Australia and Tasmania — 

 evidently gifts to Mr. Hope — exist in the Hope 

 Department, and are still in excellent condition. 

 It is probable that species of other groups collected 

 by him are also present. 



Dear Hope 



I called yesterday on you and left a tin box with 

 a few Hobart Town beetles, which I had neglected to put 

 with the others. Is not there not [sic] a Chrysomela among 

 them, very like the English species which feeds on the 

 Broom. — I have spoken to Waterhouse about the Australian 

 insects ; you can have them when you like. — The collections 

 in the pill boxes come from Sydney, Hobart town, and 

 King George's Sound. — Do you want all orders for your 

 work? Some are already I believe in the hands of 

 Mr. Walker, and you know Waterhouse has described some 

 minute Goleoptera in the papers read to the Entomological 

 Soc : To these descriptions of course you will refer. — You 

 will be glad to find that many of the minute Goleoptera 

 from Sydney are mounted on cards. — Will you send me as 

 soon as you conveniently can, one of my boxes, as I am in 

 want of them to transplant some more insects. — Perhaps you 

 had better return the Oarabi, as they came from several 

 localities I am afraid of some mistake. We must put out 

 specimens for the Entomolog : Soc : and your Cabinet. 

 May I state in a note on your authority that a third or 

 a half of the insects which you already have of mine from 

 Sydney and Hobart town are undescribed. — It is a striking 

 fact, if such is the case, for it shows how imperfectly known 



