PREFACE. 



It was with the greatest reluctance that I under- 

 took the editing of this work in succession to the late 

 Mr. H. T. Stainton. My time was so completely 

 occupied with other matters that at first I felt it 

 would be impossible for me to accede to the request of 

 the|Eay Society ; and it was only when it seemed likely 

 that the further publication of the work might other- 

 wise be indefinitely delayed, together with a promise 

 from my friend Mr. W. Denison Roebuck, of Leeds, 

 that he would assist me by copying out the manuscript 

 for the letterpress, etc., that I consented. 



The present volume completes Mr. Buckler's de- 

 scriptions and figures of the Noctuao. There were 

 drawings of nearly all the species, but in the case of 

 many no accompanying descriptions. Fortunately 

 these omissions were almost entirely of species well 

 known, and described in all histories of the British 

 Lepidoptera, and which Mr. Buckler had evidently 

 not considered it worth while to re-describe. For the 

 same reason (as in the last volume) it has not been 

 thought necessary to introduce fresh descriptions 

 here. 



Considerable delay was again occasioned through 



