66 
INTRODUCTION. 
from drawings by Moses Harris, * by far tbe best 
painter and engraver of such subjects in his day, 
and likewise a man of original observation, and 
warmly attacked to the study of insects. Dru 
Drury was a London goldsmith, in good circum- 
stances, who expended much time and money in 
prosecuting this study. He purchased almost every 
collection of any value that could be obtained, and 
contributed largely to defray the expenses of various 
individuals who were sent to different countries, 
principally for the purpose of collecting objects of 
natural history. The collection amassed by such 
means became of great extent and value ; contain- 
ing upwards of eleven thousand species and varieties, 
of which little short of three thousand were Lepi- 
doptera. “ There may be in Holland," says Drury 
himself, in one of the printed circulars which he 
distributed with a view to its sale, “ collections 
more numerous (having in many instances a great 
number of single species), yet no collection abounds 
with such a wonderful variety in all the different 
genera as this. All the specimens of which it is 
composed are in the highest and most exquisite 
state of preservation such an extensive collection 
can be supposed to be, and a very considerable 
number are unique, such as are to be found in no 
other cabinet whatever, and of considerable value ; 
many of which, coming from countries exceedingly 
unhealthy, where the collectors, in procuring them, 
* All the plates of the two first volumes are by Harris, but 
some of those iu the third volume are by a different hand. 
