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for neither the eye nor smell is sufficient to account for the facility and rapidity with which they are attracted to each other. This has given Aurelians a hint for entrapping several species by a practice known by the name of "sembling," which is placing "a hen moth in a box covered with gauze, or to tie her to a tree, bush, &c. lightly tied or fastened round the body with a piece of sewing thread, and there to be left all night, and in the morning, when you return, you will almost be certain to find madam accompanied by her spark, who will not desert his mistress, though her favours be ever so easily obtained'." Harris quotes instances of this practice in the capture of the Scarce Vapourer (Ph. gonostigma), and some others of the larger Sphinx Moths. We remember once rearing from a chrysalis a mutilated and infirm moth of a species rarely observed in our neighbourhood, which had been allowed to escape; when, on accidentally noticing it a short time afterwards, another of its species was already found in company. But we believe the most singular and never-failing instance we could mention is that of the large Eggar Moth (Ph. quercus); when the males are not only plentifully attracted towards an imprisoned female, but are so completely fascinated that they lose all fear, and though at other times remarkably shy and swift of flight, they become absolutely sluggish, and may be caught easily as they creep buzzing over the hands.

We wish that our limits allowed of our commenting more largely on the curious habits of this comparatively terra incognita of the natural world; but we are warned by the length of our article that we must leave much unsaid. In taking our leave of the work before us, however, we cannot omit a few words on that extreme sensibility so strongly perceptible in this beautiful class of the creation. The sun, a passing cloud, an almost imperceptible change of temperature or barometrical pressure are sufficient to call them from their lurking places, to enliven a spot over which they may be seen hovering in abundance, or send them away with similar rapidity to hiding places where human curiosity and ingenuity have been unable to follow them: as instances, we might refer our inexperienced readers to the tender broods of the Glanvil Fritillary, who, "if the sun should chance his head by the interposition of a cloud," instantly suspend their active movements, and even refrain from taking their food; and, again, to the larva of the Lackey Moth (Ph. neustria): "They seem," says our author, " very fond of lying close together on the top of their web, when the sun shines full upon them; and I have observed them at this time to have an odd sort of motion with their heads, which they move at the same instant of time

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together, as if one soul had animated their little bodies." This sympathetic feeling appears in some degree to be analogous to that by which gnats and several species of flies are acted upon, so as to continue their aerial motions as if under the influence of some positive law: their bodies all turning one way, the whole swarm moving in given directions, halting, rising, falling, or whirling, as if, to use the apt words of Moses Harris, but one soul animated their little bodies." Who, too, has not seen in an autumnal evening a flight of perhaps many thousands of starlings performing similar rapid and simultaneous evolutions, controlled by signs and signals of which human nature "kenneth not."

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In connexion with these observations, we might notice, as somewhat analogous, the periodical, as well as diurnal changes in the abundance or scarcity of many insects. The most common observer of nature must have frequently remarked, that though in one season particular butterflies, moths, or various other insects, were plentiful, in the next, or for several successive seasons, few or none were visible. The surprise will cease when, as above, we find how deeply their existence depends on so many joint or variable causes; for instance, should a week or even a day of unfavourable weather occur at the moment when certain broods were abundantly hatching, all would be destroyed by this simple cause, and years might elapse before a train of coinciding circumstances again operated for their reappearance. The extreme locality of insects, too, exposes them to similar untoward obstacles to uniform and regular multiplication. Thus we find Harris, with a truly papilionaceous spirit, starting on the 18th of April, 1760, to go seven miles to a well-known spot, in search of a "Greasy Fritillary," alias the Dishclout," or, in the more elegant language of science, the Papilio artemis;" this insect, like the Marbled-white (Pap. galathea), Argent and Sable Moth (Ph.hastata), and others, being seldom found beyond certain limits.

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We have been tempted to indulge a smile at the quaintness and simplicity of our friend Harris, and in so doing may, perhaps, have led our readers to estimate his memory too lightly; but we must do him justice. He was certainly not a man of either science or learning: his name, therefore, cannot rank with those of Ray or Lister; but his mind was acute and observing; his zeal and industry were unwearied; and his talents as an entomological artist were very great. The study of insects at the time he wrote can hardly be said to have begun: the practical part, or that of collecting, was looked upon as every thing: no wonder then that entomology, as well as every other branch of natural history, was considered as trivial, or as fit subjects for ridicule. Yet, even in those days of darkness, with none of the advantages of study, of assistance, or of advice, which may

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now be enjoyed, the inquiring spirit of Harris first made known some of those discoveries which are supposed to have emanated from many of the leading zoologists of the present age. He, we believe, was the first who observed, and accurately described, that curious and beautiful mechanism in the wings of certain Lepidopterous insects, by which these organs are retained in their respective positions without diminishing their freedom of motion. This "spiral socket and spring," as he quaintly calls them, are described with the greatest accuracy in his "Essay preceding a Supplement to the Aurelian," a thin quarto, without date, and now of great rarity. In that curious and original work, he investigates with great tact and shrewdness the variations in the nuration of the wings in the diurnal Lepidoptera: these are not only explained with great precision, but are illustrated by admirable figures. It will also excite the surprise of many entomologists, who are apt to suppose all that comes from the moderns is original, to be told that Moses Harris was the first who divided the Linnæan Papillionidæ into distinct genera; and that in this essay these genera were actually defined long before Fabricius or Latrielle ever wrote on the subject. accurately also do Harris's groups coincide with those of the more modern systems, that they are, in nine instances out of ten, precisely the same. True it is, that he, who was no scholar, gave to his groups such names as Saphire, Imperator, Driad, &c., names which, in a generic sense, are totally inadmissible; but these errors of nomenclature do not in the least diminish the merit of his observations: substitute Colias for Aureus, and Gonopteryx for Narcissus, and we have the two groups of modern entomologists described by Harris, long before Latrielle or Leach, to whom they are respectively attributed, were alive! Again: this idea of arranging natural groups by the nervous system of their wings was afterwards applied by our author to the whole order of Diptera; and with nearly equal success. The merit of this has been assigned to Jurine, Meigen, and Latrielle; but it unquestionably belongs to Harris, whose name, in connexion. with this subject, has been equally passed over both by foreigners and his own countrymen. We cite these instances to show, that if Harris had possessed the advantages of a liberal education, he was endowed with a mind and spirit fully competent to do greater things than to catch a butterfly, or even than to take the chair of the Aurelian's Club. The truth is, that England has been either ignorant or unjust to the memory of those of her sons who in an age of comparative darkness and prejudice laid the foundations of the science of natural history. Nor must the professional merits of Harris, as an artist and engraver, be passed over slightly. Besides his own works, the plates of which were all drawn, etched, and coloured by himself, he executed, in like

manner, all those in the three volumes of "Drury's Exotic Insects:" a work which owes its chief, and indeed only value to the excellency of its graphic illustrations. In a word, Harris may certainly be deemed a man of considerable, and, for the age he lived in, of very superior talent; and as one who extended the intellectual boundaries of his favourite pursuit. Natural history requires a diversity of talent and of labour, which can never be concentrated in a single individual; but there are niches in the temple of science for all who distinguish themselves in its various departments. To one of these, and that not in an inferior range, do we consign the memory of Moses Harris.

We shall conclude this article with an addition which will, we are sure, be acceptable to our scientific readers, and doubly so to those who possess a copy of the work before us, namely, an index which we have compiled with some trouble, annexing the genuine Linnæan names, with references to Donovan's plates and Haworth's pages for representations and descriptions of the subjects given in the plates of Harris.

By the kindness of Mr. Stephens, we have been enabled to affix the modern generic name to almost every species. This information, derived from such a source, the English entomologist will know how to appreciate.

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Strophosomus, Bil. Curculio coryli. Nut beetle.

Orgyia, Och. Gonostigma. Scarce vapourer.
Lampetia, Steph. Defoliana.

Mallow moth, or Mottled

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