( 7 ) 



a systematic work. Accordingly we find towards the conclusion of Shaw's General Zoology 

 an advertisement as follows : — 



" The following works are preparing for publication by the author of these volumes: — 



i. 



" The Thirteenth (and final) Volume of the General Zoology. In the press and will be published 



in the Spring. 



II. 



" A Systematic Catalogue of nearly Ten Thousand Indigenous Insects. In which will 

 be included the various Names that have been applied to each Species, by every British Author on Ento- 

 mology, as well as those adopted by the principal Continental Writers. In 8vo. (Nearly ready for the 



press.) 



in. 

 u A Synopsis of British Insects. In which it is proposed to give the Generic and Specific 

 Characters of all the Insects enumerated in the foregoing Catalogue (or discovered subsequently to its 

 publication) ; with Observations on their Metamorphosis, Food, Economy, Location, &c, as far as prac- 

 ticable. Illustrated with Coloured Figures of the rarer and more interesting Species. In Monthly 

 Numbers. 8vo. 



IV. 



" A Monograph of the British Species of the Linnean Genus Sphinx ; with Figures of 

 all the Species, their LarvaB and Pupae. In Quarterly Numbers. 4to." 



In the natural order of things it might have been expected that the Catalogue would have 

 preceded the Descriptive Work, but the intention being to bring out the Catalogue as a whole, 

 whereas the Descriptive Work was to appear in parts, it was evidently a wise arrangement to 

 commence upon the latter without waiting for the completion of the Catalogue. Accordingly 

 on the 1st May, 1827, the first number of the JSIandibulata portion of the Illustrations was 

 published, and the following month saw the first number of the Haustellata portion of the 

 work before the public. It was not till twenty-eight numbers of the Illustrations had been 

 published, i. e. in August, 1829, that the Systematic Catalogue of British Insects appeared. 

 This Catalogue enumerated upwards of 10,000 species of Insects as British. 



The Illustrations continued to come out with regularity up to 1832, when the appearance 

 of Mr. Rennie's Conspectus of British Butterflies and Moths, which was to a great extent an 

 abstract of Mr. Stephens' volumes on Lepidoj)tera, induced him to take proceedings in Chancery 

 for the protection of his copyright. The consequences of these proceedings were most un- 

 fortunate to Mr. Stephens, and, as he states in the Address to the Supplement of his Illustrations 

 published in 1846, his " prospects were for ever blighted by the inconsiderate prejudices of an 

 implacable and tyrannical individual." The Illustrations were however persevered with up to 

 1837, and a Supplementary number appeared in 1846. 



On the suspension of his Illustrations, arising from circumstances wholly uncontrollable by 

 him, he proceeded with an abridgment of that work, and in 1839 was published " A Manual of 

 British Coleoptera or Beetles;" it was proposed to bring out three or four other volumes of a 

 similar nature on the other Orders, but no progress ever appears to have been made with these 

 volumes. 



Mr. Stephens also " proceeded to a considerable extent in working up an amended edition 

 of his Catalogue (or Nomenclature), by patiently re-examining the references to every Species 

 and Synonym, attaching the actual date when possible to every reference." 



