Ray’s second genus is _Bombylius_, identical, as far as it goes, with the modern genus _Bombus_, excepting that it includes an _Anthophora_. He here describes nineteen, all numbered. Ray’s names are phrases, the mode of describing then prevalent in all the natural sciences, until the happy introduction of the binomial system by the great genius of natural history—LINNÆUS. These phrases are almost tantamount to the modern specific character; but Ray unfortunately attaches no size, yet size might have lent some aid to their modern determination. Mr. Kirby was able to identify and introduce into his synonymy only a few of Ray’s insects, from the defectiveness of the descriptions; the following embrace all that could be verified:— No. 1 of the _Apes silvestres_ is our _Anthidium mancatum_; No. 3, the male of _Anthophora retusa_, the female of which being No. 4 of his _Bombylii_; No. 4 of the _Apes_ is _Andrena nitida_: these comprise all of those numbered which could be recognized. The first of the unnumbered is the male of _Eucera longicornis_; the fourth is _Melecta punctata_; the sixth is _Colletes fodiens_; the seventh is the male of _Osmia bicornis_; and the ninth the celebrated _Megachile Willughbiella_. In _Bombylius_ No. 1 is _Bombus lapidarius_; No. 2, _B. Raiellus_, named by Mr. Kirby in honour of its great describer; No. 3 is _B. muscorum_; No. 4 is the female of _Anthophora retusa_, as noticed above; No. 5 is _Bombus terrestris_, as is also No. 6; No. 7 is the male of _B. lapidarius_; No. 8 is _B. pratorum_; No. 9 is _B. sylvarum_; No. 10 is _B. subinterruptus_; No. 11 is _B. hortorum_; No. 13 is _B. Francillonellus_, and No. 17 is _Apathus Barbutellus_. Thus ten of the _Apes silvestres_, and six of the _Bombylii_ are unidentified, and those recognized may be placed correctly, by the aid I give in attaching Mr. Kirby’s synonymy to the list of species added to each genus below. Nothing of any moment thence intervened, until the Rev. W. Kirby, of Barham, in Suffolk, made a careful and earnest collection of the ‘British Bees,’ with a view to their scientific description and distribution. Stragglers were to be found in many entomological cabinets, and some of their habits had been observed and recorded by patient and attentive naturalists; but these collections were small, very imperfect, and widely dispersed, until Mr. Kirby’s energy and activity nurtured the idea, and carried it into execution, of bringing into one focus the scattered notices and vagrant specimens he had seen about.