40 OBITUARY. 



equally advanced, and the feelings of individuals will be spared. By a reference to "The 

 Ketrospect," the uniutcntioniilly incorrect statements which even with the greatest care, 

 sometimes occur, will be at once apparent, and we can easily, by drawing a pen through 

 the erroneous sentence, prevent the perpetuation of eiTor. The knowledge too of the existence 

 of a "Retrospect" will tend to the prevention of error, by inducing increased care in 

 sifting the evidence of facts to be recorded. — B. E. M. 



The Short Sitn-Jish, (Orthagoriscus Mola.)— A notice having appeared in "The Naturalist" 

 vol. ii. page 280, of the capture, off Portlethen, a small fishing-village a few miles south of 

 Aberdeen, of the '■'■Orthagoriscus truncatus," I am induced to correct a few mistakes in that 

 account. The fish was caught on Friday the 17th. of September last, and on the following 

 day, was conveyed to Aberdeen by its captors, for the purpose of exhibition, Avhen I visited 

 it in company with the Rev. Mr. Longmuir, who thoroughly examined it, and ascertained its 

 dimensions and weight. On consulting "YarreU's British Fishes" a short time after, there 

 was not the slightest diflScultyiin determining the species to be Orthagoriscus Mola, and not 

 0. truncatus, as the former of the figures of the fish in that work presented a perfect resem- 

 blance to the Portlethen specimen. The Rev. L. Jenyns, in his excellent ''Manual," distinguishes 

 this from the only other British species, in the depth being only two-thirds of the length, 

 and in the skin being rough, which was very much the case when the specimen was fresh. 

 The flesh is said to be bad, but a considerable quantity of oil is generally j'ielded. According 

 to the last-mentioned writer, the skin of the other species, the true 0. truncatus, is smooth, 

 and the length is much greater than the depth. Tliis last has only been met with in a 

 verg few instances on the British shores. The measurement of the breadth is also incorrectly 

 stated in the former account; the distance five feet two inches, having been taken from the 

 extremity of the one fin to that of the other, not "from below them." — John Longmuir, 

 JuN., Aberdeen, December 7th., 1852. 



(DMtiinrif. 



Mr. J. F. Stephens. — Entomologists, and especially those attached to the study of English 

 insects, will learn with sorrow that Mr. J.\mes Francis Stephens, F. L. S., late President of 

 the Entomological Society, died on the 22i)d of December, at his house in Kennington, after 

 eight or ten days illness of inflammation of the lungs. Mr. Stephens was for many years a 

 clerk in the Admiralty office, in Somerset House; having lately been superannuated. For the 

 last half-century, he has devoted the whole of his leisure to the study of Natural History ; and 

 he had formed the largest (ioUection of British insects which had ever been collected together. 

 Indeed the extent and beauty of its arrangement won the admiration of every foreign (collector 

 who saw it, as such local collections are almost unknown on the continent. This collection 

 has for years been, in the most liberal manner, open one evening in the week, (Wednesday,) 

 to any person who wished to consult it for scientific purposes; and the very complete ento- 

 mological library which Mr. Stephens had collected was equally accessible. In 1818, on the 

 recommendation of Dr. Leach, and at the request of the trustees, the government gave Mr. 

 Stephens permission to leave his office for a time and to assist Dr. Leach in the arrangement 

 of the insects in the British Museum collection ; then forming the commencement of the collection 

 of British insects in that institution. Mr. Stephens was the author of: — First, "The Systematic 

 Catalogue of British Insects;" Second, "The Illustrations of British Entomology;" Third, "A Man- 

 ual of British Coleoptera;" Fom-th, "A Catalogue of British Lepidoptera in the Collection of the 

 British Museum;" the last part of which was occupying his attention at the time of his death. 

 He was also author of the "Continuation of Shaw's Zoology;" containing the birds, which first 

 made the English naturalist acquainted with the modern system of classification now universally 

 adopted, Mr. Stephens was a most active collector in the field, and combined in an extra- 

 ordinary degree the practical experience of the field naturalist with the knowledge of the 

 enlightened student and scientific reader. — From the Athenseum, December 25th., 1852., 

 J. Mc'Intosh. _ 



