( 4 ) 



Soldiers 3 - and Sailors, b Toe-biters, c which used frequently to be deposited in little cages 

 constructed of a split bung or large cork, palisaded round with corking-pins, or in little card or 

 paper boxes; occasionally placed in larger boxes in juxtaposition with other little (wooden) 

 prisons, containing white or pied mice, or not unfrequently a tame rat. 



" On the day last mentioned I was draughted from Hertford and became a resident in the 

 semi-monastic, cloistered domicile of Christ Church, Newgate Street, where I remained until 

 the 16th September, 1807. Being thus pent up as it were within the walls of our ancient 

 metropolitan city, no opportunity presented itself of noticing any natural productions, excepting 

 that of an occasional straggling Telep1i07'us {Soldier or Sailor, as the case might be), or White 

 Butterfly, making- its appearance in the so-called 'garden' or 'ditch.' However, my latent love 

 of Natural History was aroused by a small well known volume, 'The History of 300 Animals,' 

 having been presented to me in 1806 ; and from that period I have delighted in the study of 

 Zoology, although I did not take up the subject of Entomology as a special favourite before the 

 winter of 1809; — the intervening period being wholly, and my time subsequently till 1823 occa- 

 sionally, absorbed in paying my devoirs to various branches of Natural Philosophy, especially to 

 Meteorology and Electricity, the fascinations of the latter science leading me to the formation 

 of a very extensive assemblage of the necessary apparatus (including a colossal electrical 

 machine of formidable powers), and an Electrical Library of no mean extent, which last I alone 

 possess, having disposed of the former not only on account of its becoming too cumbersome, but 

 from the prosecution of the subject of Electricity — then just exhibiting the new features that 

 have subsequently made such revolutions in various mechanical and chemical operations — 

 drawing too largely upon the limited time I could devote to scientific objects. 



" Besides ' The History of 300 Animals,' my scanty knowledge of Zoological works, 

 previous to October, 1809, extended solely to the crude histories contained in the five ponderous 

 tomes of Chambers' Cyclopaedia, the Zoological articles in Cooke's Geography, and in 

 Gregory's Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences, and Smith's Cabinet of Natural History, 

 together with Barr's Translation of Buffon. With such slender aids little progress could be 

 made; but I was fortunate at the period in question in being introduced to a gentleman (now 

 an M.D.) tinctured like myself with a love for Entomology, and one who had possessed 

 opportunities for becoming acquainted with better books on the subject than I had. He 

 recommended, inter alia, as essential works for the prosecution of my studies, ' Stewart's 

 Elements of Natural History;' 'Turton's Translation of Gmelin,' and his 'British Fauna;' 

 the publications of (my subsequent and now regretted friends) Haworth, d Marsham e and 

 Donovan.' All but the latter (from its great cost) I speedily obtained; and my first project 

 was to draw up from the above authorities, assisted by the Transactions of the old Entomological 

 Society of London, then in course of publication, as complete a British Fauna as possible, the 

 MSS. of which (corrected up to 1812) is now in my library. Unfortunately I was not aware 

 of the existence of the inestimable ' Monographia Apum Angliae' of my venerable and kind 

 friend Mr. Kirby— the father of British Entomology— or my Entomological Fauna would 



a Telephori with pale elytra. J Lepidoptera Britannica, 1 vol. 



b Ditto dark elytra. e Coleoptera Britannica, 1 vol. 



c Colymbetes. f History of British Insects, 16 vols. 



