90 Journal New York Entomological Society, t^'o'- xxili. 



ing in the air near him. He tried to forget it and to go on with his 

 histrionic eloquence, but in spite of himself he would keep his eye 

 upon the singular creature. For it was unlike anything he had ever 

 seen, even in Australia, and whether lepidopterous, coleopterous, 

 hymenopterous or what he could not guess. " I own," he said, " I 

 lost my head and then my lines and in another second should have 

 left the stage, abandoned the waiting heroine and flown for my net 

 when the thing disappeared." It had been manufactured by some 

 frivolous friends and suspended by invisible wire from above as a 

 practical joke." He added, with his whimsical smile, " Don't I wish 

 it had been real ? New species, new genus, new order ! Heavens ! " 

 In August, 1889 (I have not arranged my quotations according 

 to dates for these are only random and scattered reminiscences), he 

 wrote that he was to start for Australia in a few days with his 

 theatrical company to remain until the next spring. He had been 

 somewhat embarrassed in financial matters for some time and was 

 making strong efforts to sell his entomological collection. Our 

 museum here had talked of purchasing it but there were annoying 

 delays and these worried and irritated him. Up to the very last day 

 before his departure he hoped the sale would be carried through, but 

 it failed of completion. So the enthusiasm which the thought of 

 collecting in that country of marvels would have otherwise evokea 

 was absent as he wrote or talked. He wrote from Melbourne, Syd- 

 ney and other places of the intense heat, — " thermometer since Christ- 

 mas generally about 100 degrees in the shade, the warmest season 

 for thirty years. It has quite unnerved me and I have had no heart 

 even for collecting. The place I am now in " — near Sidney — " is a 

 splendid field and as the weather has moderated a little I hope to do 

 something during the five weeks' stay. I think I shall take home at 

 least 10,000 specimens in all orders." Later he writes, "I have been 

 offered an appointment here under Government but it will not be 

 open until after close of present year. If I do not settle with Mr. 

 Jessup as to sale of my collection I shall return to Australia, bringing 

 all my belongings and end my days in this far off land." At the 

 close of this letter, so filled with the tropical heat, the flora and 

 fauna of this distant clime, it is odd to meet with the mention of 

 one of our little eastern species. " I forgot to tell you that I took 

 one specimen of your Euphancssa meridiana last summer at Plain- 

 field, N. J." 



