164 DR. BENJAMIN ALLEN, OF BRAINTREE.
the coast of Essex, likewise near. The shells of all these are clear, like China. . .
The western [Oysters] are great and hard ; so are the French, thick, cours-shelled,
and unpleasant. At the Isle of Thanet, &c., in the mouth of the Thames, [they
are] as big as a colt's-foot. The nest good to Essex oisters are [those from]
Milton and Shaffleet, in Sussex, I think. They fatten them by laying them in
pits on a loamy clay at Fingringo and Rowhedge, in Essex, whence the Colchester
Oisters come. The pit is, maybe, better than two feet deep and not larger than
two yards wide or three. . . . [These] have the benefit of the washing of
the land; and, if overflowed on every full tide, [the oysters] are white. Those
that have no fresh water but every spring tide are green finned, and so not liked
by the neighbourhood so well as white. . . .
Next follow notes on "Insect Animals within the Earth,"
"Water Insects" (including water-snails), gnats and dragon-
flies (many drawings), "The Common Housed Snail,'' Helix
aspersa (with several anatomical drawings, the result of
dissections), lepidoptera (141 numbered drawings and many
supplementary sketches of larva?, pupa?, &c), beetles (50
drawings), lady-birds (9 drawings), earwigs, field bugs,
crickets, the great green grasshopper, honey-bees, hornets, flies,
spiders (14 drawings), "Harvestmen" (two drawings), "The
Land Swift or Eft" (one drawing), the "Water Swift" (one
drawing of the animal and two of its anatomy), and the glow-
worm, together with remarks on Natural History in general.
These notes, if not now of much scientific value, testify to the
depth of Allen's interest in what he calls "insects" and to his
keen powers of observation. As to the drawings, the memoranda
accompanying them leave no doubt whatever that, in the vast
majority of cases, they were drawn direct from the creatures
themselves and were not copied from any published work.
In regard to the Lepidoptera, Mr. Fitch has been able to
identify the species intended to be represented by almost every
one of the drawings, nearly one hundred and fifty in number. I
reproduce (fig. 3) two pages (pp. 236-237) as fair specimens
of the whole. Of the species shown thereon, Mr. Fitch identifies
the following :—
No. 119, Bombyx mori (the silk-worm—larva, pupa, and imago).
No. 120, Macroglossa stellatarum, the Humming-bird Hawk Moth.
No. 121, Demas coryli (larvae)
No. 122, Parnassius apollo
No. 123, Zeuzera asculi, the Leopard Moth.
No. 124, Macroglossa fuciformis, the Bee Hawk Moth.
No. 125, Sphinx ligustri, the Privet Hawk Moth (larva, pupa, and imago).
No. 128, ........... ?