Iv PREFACE, 
furnishing specimens from the British Museum collection to the artist in order that their 
portraits might be introduced into this work, and also for his assistance in accelerating its 
progress. To Dr. Sclater, who has at all times been ready to give every aid in his power, 
I am greatly indebted ; also to Count T. Salvadori, for the loan of the types of P. lorie 
and Р. ceruleitorques; and to Prof. Steere, of the University of Michigan, I desire to 
express my acknowledgments for sending me the type of P. propinqua and a specimen of 
ӘР. steerii. То Prof. R. Ridgway I am also under obligations for entrusting me with the 
only two specimens known of P. nympha from Japan in the National Museum, and 
permitting me to transmit them to London to place in the artist’s hands ; and, lastly, to 
my friends Prof. J. A. Allen and Mr. F. M. Chapman my thanks are due for assistance at 
various times during the publication of my work. 
It is not often that one returns to his first love and finds her, after many years, more 
beautiful than ever, as has been my experience in the present instance ; and it is with the 
natural feeling of sincere regret, as I finish my work, that I resign my pen, conscious that 
in all probability I shall never return to the subject again, but ав this beautiful Family, 
as it shall be known years hence, must find its new historian in some naturalist of a future 
generation. I can only hope that my labours may serve to lighten his, and help him 
onward in his task. 
D. G. E. 
