PREFACE. 
Ii must be acknowledged that the very rapid progress which 
every science for some years past has made in this country, 
is greatly to be attributed to Elementary works, and at the 
same time it is to be regretted that as yet none has appeared 
on the practical part of Entomology, by which I mean the 
method of collecting and preserving insects, the elements of 
the science, Sec. It is true such a work is announced, and it 
is hoped will shortly appear ; I allude to the completion of 
Messrs. Kirby and Spence’s Introduction to Entomology. — 
Prom the profound knowledge of the subject which these ex- 
cellent authors possess, we certainly may expect a most com- 
plete work ; yet its extent, and the necessary expense of at least 
four octavo volumes, must exclude many from purchasing it, 
and especially young persons to whom the study of Entomo- 
lo gy is particularly adapted. 
From this consideration I was induced more than twelve 
months ago to begin a work, the mere outline of the present, 
and which was intended to comprise little more than the 
mnean Genera, with a slight notice of the more natural 
t d 61 a * la< ' k een separated from them, with references 
o , 1C ' JCSt ess; iys or papers that had been published on the 
J e ct, and directions for collecting, &c. This was to have 
een published in duodecimo, and would have made but a thin 
