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aware of their danger; and, as a general rush took place towards the door, the unfortunate Aurelians with difficulty made their escape, at the expense, as we may collect from the narrator, of hats, canes, and wigs; many of them, we are assured, being compelled to leave them to the mercy of the flames, which speedily demolished the Swan Tavern in toto, together with their valuable collection of insects, books, and "Regalia." This perilous catastrophe appears to have paralyzed their efforts; for so" disheartened" were they, that, although they several times met for that purpose, they never could collect so many together as would be sufficient to form a Society, so that for fourteen years and upwards there was no meeting of that sort;" till," Phoenix-like," a new Society, of which our author was secretary," arose out of the ashes of the old." During this interregnum our youthful Aurelian, however, was by no means idle; availing himself of all opportunities to obtain knowledge, the result of which the public reaped in the work before us. We are inclined to suspect that he was not a man of any great science, and indeed he candidly acknowledges that his manuscripts were submitted to, and put into form by, a Mr. Walter Wall. On his quitting England for India, however, Harris was left to his own resources; and, to use his words, from that time my MSS. went rough from my hand to the press, bare of those pretty embellishments with which men of a more liberal education sprinkle and adorn their writings, making them pleasing as well as edifying; but if mine may want what a more learned hand could bestow, yet what I have wrote is truth, which is ever most beautiful when most exposed." So fully do we concur with this modest but just opinion, that we see no cause for regret that he was left alone to complete a work which, for accuracy and perspicuity, far surpassed any which had preceded it. Before we commence our remarks, it may be right to state, that the "Aurelian" itself was preceded by a small but very useful publication, entitled "The Aurelian's Pocket Companion," in which above 400 lepidopterous British insects are enumerated, with English and Linnæan names, as far as known, with a concise account of their food, size, colour, times of appearance, and usual haunts. In 1782, he published in 4to. an Exposition of English Insects, illustrated by fifty-one copper-plates, containing about 500 figures of insects. This was followed by an Essay, in which he suggests a mode of arranging the Papiliones into natural families, from the difference of structure observable in the nerves of the wings. It is not our present intention to enter into scientific details on the subjects represented in this beautiful work, or to touch upon the state of entomology at the time the author wrote. His preface will explain this; and will, moreover, give the young collector full instructions for

carrying on the war with this "light militia of the lower sky," and ample directions for preserving and exhibiting the trophies of his lepidopterous activity and perseverance. We cannot, however, resist inserting the mode recommended by our wary warrior, of receiving the enemy and foiling a rampant butterfly when coming down on the full charge. Behold then Moses Harris belted, not with sword and cartridge-box, but a cincture compounded of clasp-knives, needles, and "store of chip pill boxes, and armed with a racket and seithen net, and a batfolder made of musketta gauze." Thus arrayed, let him speak for himself: "On seeing the insect come flying towards you, you must endeavour to meet it, or lay yourself in its way, so that it may come rather to the right side of you, as if you intended to let it pass; then having the net in your hands, incline it down to your right side, turning yourself a little about to the right, ready for the stroke; not unlike the attitude in which a batman in the game at cricket stands, when he is ready to strike the ball, only his bat is lifted up, but your nets must incline rather downward. When the fly is within your reach, strike at it forcibly, receiving him in the middle of your net, &c. . . . the motion of your hands in catching must be from your right hip to your left shoulder, not at all retarding the motion, till 'tis as it were spent, closing the nets in the motion. Having thus hampered the enemy and secured your fly by a horn, or a leg, and held him up in an advantageous manner by the body in your left hand," directions are forthwith given for despatching, transfixing, &c. So much for waiting the attack of an "Emperor of Morocco;" but should he be on the retreat, you are further directed how to pursue and "catch him when in your reach," which is done pretty much in the same manner, unless his majesty should be retiring" along a ditch on the left hand side of you," for in this case he " will not be able to touch it, the position being very awkward," unless he pushes himself on as a leading piquet and heads the enemy, "when turning nimbly about the position will be as in the first case," and his majesty may as before be scientifically foiled. We have only to add, for the accurate information of our more precise and sober aurelian readers, that Harris always went forth to the field arrayed in a very long flapped coat with huge cuffs, short breeches, pendulous waistcoat with deep pockets, a pincushion dangling round his neck by way of gorget, and his person surmounted with a somewhat slouchy equiangular and equilateral cocked hat. On the same model, no doubt, was formed that of the great Sir Joseph, when in a similar chase we are informed by the bard,

Again to earth Sir Joseph fell so flat,

And with Sir Joseph dropp'd his three-cock'd hat."

At least he is so represented in the frontispiece, reposing on a bank, "when the fight was done, breathless and faint," with a large chip box of butterflies in his hand. The results of these divers and perilous wars are displayed in the forty-one beautiful and accurate coloured plates which adorn the volume before us; and we shall proceed to select some of the most interesting particulars which occur in our progress: preparatory to which, we may once for all state that, in almost every case, not only is each insect represented most accurately, in its successive state from egg to maturity, but the dates of each change, whether from egg to larva, larva to pupa (or chrysalis), pupa to perfect insect, are carefully noted; with many original observations respecting their habits and natural economy, interesting both to the practical and to the scientific entomologist. In several instances, hints are given for destroying noxious insects, or in explanation of the causes of blight and other injuries to which vegetation is so frequently and so fatally exposed. We need scarcely add, that the more accurately particulars respecting the habits, instincts, disorders, &c. of insects are known, the more must every observer of nature be induced to remark, with our author," that the works of the Lord are manifest, and that in wisdom he has made them all." We shall commence with that very singular circumstance, the naturalization, if we may so express ourselves, of certain exterminating insects which are hatched and supported within the vitals of others, without impairing the living functions, though ultimately fatal to their continued existence. By naturalists, the facts we are about to state are well known; but a vast portion of the world are little aware, we apprehend, that this internal devastation is carried on to an extent far beyond their conception. The most experienced dissector would probably find it impracticable to insert the finest needle deep into the body of a small caterpillar, and still less into its egg, without killing the one or fracturing the frail materials of the other; but Nature employs living instruments, constantly engaged in this nice operation, which so frequently obtruded itself on our author's notice. Thus, in the bodies of the larva of the Burnet moth (Sphinx filipendula), of the pink underwing (Phal. jacobea), and of the mottled orange, none of them exceeding an inch in length, ichneumons were discovered to have deposited their eggs, and passed through their respective transformations. In some cases the unfortunate caterpillars are so overloaded with these internal destroyers, that their bodies are swelled much beyond their natural bulk; in others, the growth of whole broods are checked in the stage immediately preceding their last change; and their instinctive efforts to guard against the

insidious attack are baffled by the superior sagacity or perseverance of the ichneumons. In the case of the Sphinx ocellata (eyed hawk moth), the ravager, in the shape of a small beetle, remained in security until the perfect insect had taken wing, when, increasing in size, the moth was finally overweighted and disabled. In the chrysalis of Ph. cossus, or goat moth, the eggs of an ichneumon were found in such quantities that it appeared to have been crammed with gunpowder; so abundant, indeed, that our author estimated them as amounting at least to twenty thousand. This extraordinary mode of continuing one life at the expense of another may account, we presume, for the singular and sudden diminution of certain insects occasionally observable, and an obvious reason why not a single specimen of a perfect insect may have been noticed, notwithstanding the superabundant part of their larva, which had been previously conspicuous. In this case, indeed, we have abundant reason to be thankful for that providential instinct which attracts the ichneumon so powerfully to the Phalana cossus; since, if once this insect were to increase unchecked, its destructive habits, and powers of perforating timber, would entail upon our woods and forests a curse more fatal than an Egyptian plague. In contemplating this strange economy of nature, we cannot sufficiently admire that instinctive address by which the ichneumon is enabled to insert its egg without producing death; an instinct exhibited perhaps in a still more extraordinary way in some other instances; for example, in many of the species of the solitary wasps. It is necessary for the existence of the larvæ of these wasps, when emerging from their egg, to be immediately provided with an ample supply of living food, which, as the eggs are securely immured in cells formed of clay, like swallows' nests, would be impossible, but for a power possessed by the parent wasp, of so far paralyzing a certain number of small green caterpillars as to check their growth and inclination for food without affecting life. While we are in fact writing, a solitary wasp (Vespa quadrata) is at short intervals flying in at the window loaded with its green caterpillar, to be added to an accumulated heap imprisoned in a chink behind a book-case, thus providing for its now embryo offspring when bursting from the egg.

In the Privet Moth (Sphinx ligustri) he notices a peculiar power, by which its very delicate and tender caterpillar is prevented from falling to the ground, that would, in general, prove fatal. "The great Creator," as he justly observes, "whose prudence is manifest in even the smallest of his works, having armed him sufficiently against accidents of this sort, by providing him with a roughness at the bottom of the middle feet, and the

two holders at the tail, resembling the teeth of a file, with which they hold fast to the branches they are upon, that if you endeavour to pull them off with your fingers you will certainly destroy them." Another mode of preservation from a different fate is recorded in the account of the Elephant Moth (Sphinx elpenor); its food being chiefly the "bed straw" growing by the "side of the water," it sometimes happens that the caterpillar falls in, "either through the weakness of the plant, or the weight of so large a caterpillar; but he generally survives this accident," owing to a peculiar conformation of the fourth and fifth joints of the neck, which are possessed of a retractile as well as of an apparently expansive power, for the purpose of admitting air; for Harris remarked, that when thrown into water, "the head, with the three smaller joints adjoining, was above, and the thick part even with the surface."

It is obvious that, as in the case of the above-mentioned solitary wasps, many insects would perish immediately after hatching, were they not placed in situations calculated for supplying them with food. Nature has, therefore, provided against this danger by furnishing certain eggs with peculiar properties; thus, while the egg of the Marbled-white Butterfly (Pap. galathea), and others, when voided, rebound from all obstruction, "that they may rest at length in some small cranny of the earth," the eggs of the Glanvil Fritillary (Pap. cinxia), and others, are fastened to the leaves of their respective food by a "gummy consistence." The said Glanvil Fritillary affords a curious instance of the dangers to which good, honest, and sane butterfly collectors were exposed in those days; for our author tells us, that "this fly took its name from the ingenious Lady Glanvil, whose memory had like to have suffered for her curiosity. Some relations that were disappointed by her will attempted to set it aside by acts of lunacy, for they suggested that none but those who were deprived of their senses would go in pursuit of butterflies; her relations and legatees subpoenaed Dr. Sloane and Mr. Ray to support her character. The last gentleman went to Exeter, and on the trial satisfied the judge and jury of the lady's laudable inquiry into the wonderful works of the creation, and established her will. She not only made the study of insects part of her amusement, but was as curious in her garden, and raised an Iris from the seed, which is known to this day by Miss Glanvil's Flaming Iris."

The instincts and unparalleled faculties of insects, in a manner superseding the powers of those senses which are familiar to us, might justly lead to a supposition that they are in fact gifted with some distinct senses of a highly acute and sensitive nature beyond our comprehension. Amongst others, that of being able to discover their kindred species merits particular notice;