Produced by Rachael Schultz, Barry Abrahamsen, Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
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AUTHOR OF ‘ESSAY ON THE FOSSORIAL HYMENOPTERA,’ ‘COLEOPTERA DELINEATED,’ ‘ELEMENTS OF BRITISH ENTOMOLOGY,’ MONOGRAPHS OF THE ‘DORYLIDÆ,’ ‘AULACIDÆ,’ ETC. ETC.; AND TRANSLATOR OF BURMEISTER’S ‘MANUAL OF ENTOMOLOGY.’
LONDON: LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1866.
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J. E. TAYLOR AND CO., PRINTERS, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS.
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TREASURER OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY,
IN TESTIMONY OF THE ABILITY, ZEAL, AND LIBERALITY
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A FEW words are necessary explanatory of the course pursued in the following work, as regards the citation of authorities.
All the facts recorded without reference to authorities, are the result either of personal observation or of diligent study, which, from the length of time that has intervened, have become so blended in my mind that I can no longer separate their sources. I may, however, state that observation has, certainly, as often anticipated the perusal of the discoveries of others, as their record has stimulated direct observation to confirm them.
The habits of animals, in which instinct is the sole prompter, are so uniform, that these, once well observed, may be considered as permanently established. The slight deviations that have been occasionally noticed, although temporarily infringing, do not abrogate the inflexibility of the law which regulates this faculty; and the descendants inevitably resume the economy of the ancestor.
The merit that attaches to the discovery of such facts is due merely to patience and diligence, very common attributes; and the repeated mention of the supposed first observer must, necessarily, in a work of this kind, which is far from being of a strictly scientific character, diminish the interest of the narrative by interrupting its connection, and thus making it an incongruous mosaic. The omission to cite authorities may also take place without any wish to detract from the merit of the discoverer, which is patent to all by his own record in the archives of science.