50 



including none published before, was executed for him " with the intention of forming 

 two additional volumes to those edited by Dr. Smith ; but the design is now abandoned.'" 



Each set of drawings furnished by Abbot seems to have been accompanied by more 

 or less manuscript, in which the life history of the insect is given in a brief form, with 

 the food plant of the caterpillar and the times of the change of the caterpillars to chrysa- 

 lids and of chrysalids to butterflies, which shows that Abbot must have been an excep- 

 tionally industrious rearer of insects. Indeed the transformations of not a few of our 

 butterflies are even now known only through the observations and illustrations of Abbot. 

 Dr. Boisduval was good enough to present me with three series of manuscript notes 

 entitled " Notes to the drawings of insects," all written in Abbot's own hand, and com- 

 prising twenty-seven foolscap pages, rather closely written, and describing the changes 

 of two hundred and one species ; of these thirty-eight are butterflies. These, unfortu- 

 nately, are referred to only by number and by an English name which Abbot himself 

 applied, apparently to every insect of which he furnished drawings, such as the " reed 

 butterfly," the " ringed butterfly," the " lesser dingy skipper," etc., though he occasionally 

 makes use of such names as the "autumnal ajax," " Papilio antiopa," etc., showing his 

 familiarity to a certain extent with Linnean names. As the names and drawings are in 

 some instances kept together, the manuscript of those in which they are not connected is 

 still of use. It appears that nearly all the Georgian butterflies were observed and painted 

 by Abbot, and that of about sixty specimens which he raised he distributed illustrations 

 and notes of the early stages to some of his correspondents. 



As is well knowu by all aurelians one considerable collection of Abbot's drawings 

 was published by Sir James Edward Smith in two sumptuous folio volumes, but these 

 comprise, as far as the butterflies are concerned, only twenty-four species. This work 

 made an epoch in the history of entomology in this country. Besides this Abbot pub- 

 lished nothing. The article credited to him in Hagen's Bibliography was by a Rev. Mr. 

 Abbot, who wrote from England in November, 1798, when Abbot was in this country. 



JOHN ABBOT, THE AURELIAN. 



BY W. F. KIEBY, BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON, ENGLAND. 



In the August part of the Canadian Entomologist, pp. 149-154, I notice an article 

 on this subject by my friend Mr. Scudder, and I may perhaps be able to add some 

 additional remarks. 



The volume on Exotic Moths, published by Duncan in Jardine's "Naturalists' 

 Library," contains (pp. 69-71) a short account of Abbot's life and works, and incorporates 

 the notice by Swainson, to which Mr. Scudder refers. Swainson remarks, respecting the 

 plates : " M. Francillon possessed many hundreds, but we know not into whose hands 

 they have passed." I may say that this is evidently the set in the British Museum, as 

 every volume bears the book-plate of " John Francillon." There are seventeen volumes 

 (not sixteen-) ; the first fifteen bear the date 1792 on the printed title pages, and the two 

 last volumes 1804 (not 1809). The contents are as follows : — 



Volumes 1-4 — Coleoptera. 



5 — Orthoptera, Hemiptera, Homoptera, and Heteroptera. 

 6 — Lepidoptera Bhopalocera. 

 7-11 — Lepidoptera Heterocera. 

 12 — Neuroptera, Hymenoptera. 

 13 — Diptera. 

 1 4 — Arachnida. 



15 — Myriopoda, Mallophaga, Acarina, Crustacea, Lepidoptera, (transfor- 

 mations), etc. 

 16 — Portrait, Orthoptera, Coleoptera (transformations), Lepidoptera 



(transformations). 

 1 7 — Lepidoptera (transformations). 



