The Scottish Naturalist. 147 



tion of the area under observation being made purposely to 

 exhibit the relations, inter se, of the distribution of the species, 

 as well as how many species inhabit a square mile of richly-varied 

 country in central Scotland. In the list are many observations 

 on the habits, &c., of species, but only a tithe of what the author 

 could have published from his observations, and which, no doubt, 

 he would have given had he been longer spared to us. 



After Sir Thomas had become tolerably well acquainted with 

 the productions of his own district, he began to turn his attention 

 to other parts of Perthshire, and especially to Glen Tilt and 

 Athole Forest, whose previously unknown entomological riches 

 he did much to elucidate. Little more than a month before his 

 death, and when scarcely recovered from an attack of illness, he 

 spent some days in Glen Tilt, and met with several rare species 

 hitherto unobserved in that district. 



Though thus confining himself for the most part to the Lepi- 

 doptera of Perthshire as objects of study, Sir Thomas Moncreiffe 

 did not restrict himself to the literature of the British Lepi- 

 doptera, but made himself acquainted with the more important 

 works on the species of the European fauna, of which, of course, 

 the British species form but a small portion. 



Without being a botanist. Sir Thomas had a fair knowledge of 

 the plants of Perthshire, due in great measure to his close habits 

 of observation, and in no small degree to his desire to help those 

 of his friends who were botanically inclined. Seldom did I go 

 out on a walk or an excursion with him that he did not ferret out 

 some plant that would otherwise have escaped notice. And it was 

 the same with all other branches of natural history. For this 

 reason he was unanimously elected President of the Cryptogamic 

 Society of Scotland, when that Society met at Perth in 1875 ; and 

 to him is due the great success of that meeting, and its unpar- 

 alleled show of fungi. 



In January 1872, Sir Thomas joined the Perthshire Society of 

 Natural Science, and soon became one of its most active mem- 

 bers, attending the meetings often at great inconvenience to him- 

 self, and doing all that he could to promote the interests of the 

 Society and to further its objects. In March 1874 he was elected 

 President, an office which he continued to occupy till the time of 

 his death. He was also Cairn-master (or President) of the Perth- 

 shire Mountain Club, an offshoot of the Perthshire Society of 

 Natural Science, formed for the object of exploring the Perth- 

 shire hills. In connection with this Club, an instance may be 



