OBITUARY. 43 



from that tree. So again, Mr. Crewe gives very valuable information as 

 to several larva), but he tenders a similar reply to Mr. Greene's to my 

 question, and does not mention one single species that he has himself fed 

 in confinement on the ash. — F. 0. Morris. 



(Dliitnnri[. 



Death of Mr. David Dyson, the Naturalist. — We announce with deep 

 regret the death of Mr. David Dyson, of Manchester, a well-known naturalist, 

 at the early age of thirty-three, which took place on the afternoon of Wed- 

 nesday, December 10th., 1856, at the residence of his brother, Mr. John 

 Dyson, Woodbine Cottage, Rusholme. The cause of his death was ulcer- 

 ation of the larynx. Mr. Dyson was born at Oldham, in April, 1823, and 

 his early years were passed as a factory worker; but he very soon evinced 

 a passion for collecting insects, and spent every available penny of his hard 

 earnings in the gratification of his love for entomology. He subsequently 

 devoted himself to making collections in ornithology and conchology. His 

 ardour in these pursuits led him, in 1843, to undertake a voyage to the 

 United States of America. He was then twenty years of age, and quite 

 unknown beyond his own neighbourhood, and unfriended, for his own savings 

 and some money given him by his elder brother furnished him with such 

 scanty means for his voyage, that on landing in New York he had only 

 a few shillings left. His industry and energy, however, enabled him to 

 make a tour in his new profession as collector through the States, across 

 the Alleghany mountains, and as far as St. Louis, earning the means of 

 subsistence on his way by selling portions of his collections in natural history 

 to the local museums. 



After an absence of less than twelve months he returned to England 

 with upwards of eighteen thousand specimens of insects, birds, shells, and 

 plants. This collection was found to contain some very rare specimens; 

 his success was the source of amazement almost among the leading natu- 

 ralists, and the late Mr. Hugh Strickland invited him to his father's 

 residence, Cracombe House, Worcestershire, and attempted to engage him 

 on behalf of himself and a number of other gentlemen to make a 

 second voyage to America; but the negociations failed. Being then near 

 London he took the opportunity to visit that city for the first time in his 

 life, and fouud, to his surprise, that his fame as a collector had preceded 

 him thither. At the British Museum he found that the intelligence had 

 reached there of his recent visit at Sir George Strickland's, and an en- 



* This is a mistake. Mr. Hugh Strickland's father, then resident at Craeomhe House, the 

 seat of Mr. IVrrott, and now of Apperley Court, near Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, was Mr. 

 Henry Eustatius Strickland, brother of Sir George. — F. 0. Morris. 



