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PREFACE. 
I N this little volume my object has been to give 
a short Sketch of our British Insects, with the 
hope of inducing dwellers in the country to take an 
interest in these winged denizens of the air. 
I believe the contents of the work will be found 
to be accurate. In the classification and divisions 
into families or groups I have adopted those which 
have the sanction of Entomologists eminent in their 
respective departments. The works of Westwood, 
Stainton, Rye, Shuckard, Staveley, Newman, Ormerod, 
Curtis, Lowne, Noel Humphreys, Duncan, Walker, 
Lubbock, F. Smith, Dallas, Douglas and Scott, etc., 
have been constantly before me and freely used. 
After the Reader has acquired, as I trust he may 
be able to do, a general knowledge—a sort of 
bird’s-eye view—of insect life as exhibited in the 
fields and lanes of this country, he cannot do better 
