44 OBITUARY. 



gageraent was offered him to go out in search of specimens to Central 

 America, which he accepted. In corroboration of the statement that he 

 thus early became acquainted with some of the leading naturalists, it may- 

 be mentioned that Mr. Edward Doubleday speaks of him in an article on 

 ledidopterous insects in the second volume of the "Zoologist," published in 

 1844, as "an intelligent young man, originally a weaver at Oldham, whose 

 zeal for entomology carried him out last year to the United States." 



He started for Central America on the 17th. of September, 1844, and 

 landed at Belize on the 3rd. of November. He remained in Honduras till 

 the latter end of 1845, actively engaged in his vocation, and in the deadly 

 swamps of that country contracted disorders which undermined his consti- 

 tution, the immediate cause of his return being a sunstroke at Belize. He 

 was eminently successful, however, and returned to England after forwarding 

 an extensive and varied collection of insects, shells, birds, and reptiles. His 

 collection included an extensive variety of orchidaceous plants. In this tour 

 he also executed several commissions for the late Earl of Derby and others 

 in live and dead specimens, which were added to the already magnificent 

 aviary and museum at Knowsley. Some plants of his collection were also 

 presented to the Manchester Botanical Gardens. The chief result of this 

 enterprise, however, was the addition of many thousand specimens to the 

 British Museum. In 1846 he went out to South America for the British 

 Museum, and travelled in Venezuela, carrying with him very valuable intro- 

 ductions. He was accompanied by his brother, Mr. Amos Dyson, and they 

 returned after an absence of about eleven months; his collection on this 

 occasion including a great variety of humming-birds, moths, beetles, and 

 shells. 



In the latter part of his life conchology became his favourite study, 

 and he has left behind him a private collection, numbering upwards of 

 twenty thousand shells, many of them very rare, and including more than 

 ten thousand different species. He has also left a large collection of birds 

 and insects. These collections, it is said, are very valuable, and equalled 

 by few out of London; and it is hoped than an effort will be made to 

 secure them for some of the local public museums. Mr. Dyson succeeded 

 Mr. Louis Fraser as curator at Knowsley, and he held that responsible 

 situation up to the death of the late Earl of Derby, when the specimens 

 of natural history collected there by that nobleman were sold. Some years 

 ago he resided for a time with Mr. CumnVing, of Gower Street, London, 

 and assisted that gentleman in the arrangement of his extensive collection 

 of shells. He was altogether a S3lf-educated man, and, notwithstanding 

 early disadvantages, his acquirements were considerable, his kind and gen- 

 tlemanly bearing gathering about him a large circle of highly-cultivated 

 men, whose esteem he retained to the last. — From the "Homing Herald." 



