326 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [Nov., 'l8 



While in New Haven he received a visit from C. V. Riley, 

 who urged him to come to Washington as first assistant in the 

 Division (afterward Bureau) of Entomology. But Williston 

 entertained a shrewd doubt as to whether he could be happy 

 in a position subordinate to Riley, and declined the offer, 

 although its acceptance would have meant a permanent posi- 

 tion at an increased salary. This incident was narrated to 

 me several times by Williston; it occurred about 1885. 



In the last few years Williston published two volumes on 

 fossil reptiles, his greatest specialty, and last winter was work- 

 ing on a handbook of reptilia, which was probably near com- 

 pletion when he was compelled to abandon it. If this volume 

 can be printed, it will close up his work on the reptiles about 

 as well as his Manual of Diptera did for the flies. My last 

 mental picture of the man represents him on a day last winter, 

 sitting at a table before a window in his study at home, in 

 one hand a long-snouted reptilian skull, in the other a draw- 

 ing pen with which he was rapidly making a sketch of it. 



He attended the Pittsburgh meeting of the Entomological 

 Society of America last winter and gave reminiscences of 

 his early work on Diptera to an interested audience. 



In physique he was large and vigorous, and mentally he 

 was greatly endowed. I think I shall offend no living Ameri- 

 can dipterist when I say that he towered above us all. The 

 truth of the assertion will be more clearly evident if we con- 

 sider that his work on Diptera was never more than a side 

 line, an absolute gift to science, accomplished in odd times 

 while he was attaining distinction in anatomy and world-wide 

 reputation in palaeontology, his main specialties. 



Considering the positiveness of his opinions and his frank- 

 ness in expressing them, his life was singularly free from sci- 

 entific controversies, and especially from those leading down 

 into personalities. In many long conversations with him, I 

 do not recall that I ever heard him express a personal dis- 

 like for a scientific colleague, except in one case where he felt 

 that advancement in a teaching position had been obtained by 

 servility, and another where he felt that his own matured 

 opinion had been treated rather contemptuously. 



