204 A. E. GIBBS LEPIDOPTERA IN 1906. 



the Pegsdon Hills, as did Bomhyx ruhi, lai-vse in the autmnn, 

 imagines in July. I found Eupithecia coronata quite common 

 on certain palings near Hitchin in May and again in August. 

 Tlie only insect I have taken wliich is new to me is Eupithecia 

 Haworthiata. I found sugar quite a failure, and Mr. Grellett 

 had the same experience. He and his brothers sugared in their 

 own garden pretty regularly, but in 1906 nothing of any note 

 was taken with the exception of Cymatophora ocularis, of which 

 two specimens occui*red." 



It is with deep regret that I have to record the death of an 

 esteemed correspondent and experienced Lepidopterist in the 

 jjerson of Mr. VVilliam Christopher Boyd, J.P., of The Grange, 

 Waltham Cross. Mr. Boyd belonged to the old school of 

 Entomologists, now, I am sorry to say, a rapidly decreasing 

 band, whose work is to be found recorded in the earlier numbers 

 of the scientific magazines. He and his confreres of the past 

 generation had the honour of adding new species of Lepidoptera 

 to our British fauna, an achievement which, in these later days, 

 when the field is being so thoroughly worked, very few of us can 

 hope to emulate. To wide experience and trained observation 

 Mr. Boyd added a genial disposition, and was ever-ready to help 

 the enquirer and to impart to others the rich stores of knowledge 

 he possessed. He was not a fireside naturalist ; his experience 

 was gained in the field, and in his study of nature he had 

 accumiilated a vast fund of information -Rdth regard to the 

 habits and haunts of the creatures in whose . life-histories he 

 took so great a delight. Possessing a rich fund of quiet hvimour, 

 he was a delightful companion, and those who had the advantage 

 of his personal acquaintance will ever look back with pleasure to 

 the hoiu-s spent in his society. His observations on Hertford- 

 shire Lepidoptera, extending over a period of half a century, 

 resvdted in the publication in our ' Transactions ' of a list of the 

 species taken by him in the neighbourhood of Cheshunt, which 

 I venture to think is one of the most valuable and complete lists 

 published by our own or any other provincial Society. I am also 

 indebted to Mr. Boyd for help rendered to nie from year to year 

 in the compilation of my annual report. His death, which took 

 place in September, 1906, leaves us without an entomological 

 observer in the eastern division of the county. 



Trann. Hertfordshire ma. Hist. Soc, Vol. XIII, Fart 3, February, 1908. 



