The Annals 



of 



Scottish Natural History 



No. 52] 1904 [OCTOBER 



ROBERT M'LACHLAN. 



OBITUARY. 



ALTHOUGH appreciative notices of the life and work of this 

 distinguished entomologist have already been published else- 

 where, it seems fitting that a short tribute to his memorv 



d> rf 



should appear in the pages of the " Annals." 



Robert M'Lachlan died at Lewisham on the 23rd of 

 May last in his 6/th year. Born at Ongar in Essex, and 

 essentially a London man, he was, as his name indicates, of 

 Scottish descent, his father having been a native of Greenock. 

 His love of natural history dated from his childhood, and 

 during the earlier part of his career he must have been a 

 diligent student of the general subject, for although he after- 

 wards became the leading specialist in his favourite order, 

 his knowledge of natural history as a whole was extensive. 

 Botany seems to have claimed his attention at first, and 

 was gone into with that thoroughness which subsequently- 

 marked all his work, but it soon gave place to entomology. 

 In Lepidoptera he became one of Stainton's best pupils, his 

 studies extending to the micros, his collection of which the 

 writer saw a few years ago, still in excellent preservation. 

 He also attended to other orders, but his labours were 

 gradually restricted to the Neuroptera in the broad sense 



52 B 



