PREFACE. 



For many years past, the occasional pursuit of 

 studies connected with the habits and transforma- 

 tions of insects, has helped to fill a considerable 

 portion of my leisure very agreeably ; and in this 

 unpretending volume I have endeavoured to ar- 

 range some of the results of those pleasantly 

 remembered labours in such a way as to tempt 

 others to seek their holiday amusement in a similar 

 course of research and observation, as it is a field 

 which never fails to reward the labourer with in- 

 struction as well as entertainment. 



This little book must not, therefore, be deemed 

 a scientific essay on the subject of which it treats, 

 nor even an elementary introduction to entomology, 

 to neither of which it has any pretension. Never- 

 theless, I have not been contented with stringing 

 together a number of unconnected anecdotes ; but 

 have sought, while describing many of the interest- 

 ing aspects of insect life, to explain at the same 



