VI 
PREPACK. 
of life as to afford a never-ending subject for discovery, 
instruction, and delight. Here, however, we are met 
by fresh difficulties in the path of investigation ; since 
the two points of size and colour, — usually of primary 
importance to beginners in any study of natural ob- 
jects, — are of less help than usual in the Order Coleop- 
tera, owing to their frequent instability; and the 
detail of minute differences necessitates the use of 
peculiar terms, incapable of conversion into “plain 
English.” 
Nevertheless, the field for observation is so exten- 
sive, — the cost of implements so small, — the collection 
of material alike so easy and so conducive to health, — 
and the maternal itself so readily manipulated (owing 
to the hard integuments of most species of beetles), 
and affording scope for so many interesting observa- 
tions, — that few who have commenced can abandon 
the pleasing labour. 
The student desiring further acquaintance with the 
principles of classification, &c. (too generally neglected 
by English Coleopterists), will do well to consult the 
works of Lacordaire and Westwood mentioned in the 
present volume; from which authors the majority of 
the characters in it are taken. 
E. C. Rye. 
284, King's Road, Chelsea, London, S.W., 
February, 1866. 
