568 LIST OF INSECTS 



This circumstance may be sufficient to account 

 for the little attention that has been paid to insects 

 by the naturalists of Edinburgh \ for I do not 

 know of any person who has ever made any con- 

 siderable collection here. The late Dr Walker 

 had a pretty large cabinet of Scots insects ; but 

 I believe he made no collection previous to his 

 leaving the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and 

 when he returned to it, he had lost that energy 

 necessary for the purpose, or it had been turned 

 to other branches of natural history. My own 

 collection was made in the course of one or two 

 seasons, w T hen the inclination was strong, and my 

 sight good. But it was made only at hours of lei- 

 sure, seized as they could be obtained, without 

 choice, and consequently often unfavourable for 

 the purpose. The prcperest places were likewise 

 hardly accessible to me, and the breeding of the 

 insect from the caterpillar, which is the best way of 

 obtaining good specimens, was, in my situation at 

 that time, inconvenient. From these circumstances, 

 it is evident that the following list must be very 

 defective. All that can be said for it is, that the 

 insects there enumerated are to be found in the 

 neighbourhood of Edinburgh ; but that they are 

 all, or even the hundredth part, of the insects that 

 are there to be found, especially if we take into 

 account the minuter species, I cannot assert. It 

 may, however, be of use to a beginner, by assist- 

 ing him in the knowledge of the more common 

 insects. In this list, as in nature, the great orders 



