112 ^^'^y- 



#bituarn. 



Joseph il/er/-i«.— According to the Stroud Journal of March 25th, J. Merrin 

 died at Q-loucester a day or two ago, aged 82 years. He was boi'n in London, but 

 was associated with journalism nearly all his life, and at one time was an intimate 

 acquaintance of the late Sir Isaac Pitman, of short-hand fame. At the time of his 

 death he was occupied with Mr. Y. R. Perkins on the yet unpublished County 

 List of the Victoria >«'atural llist(jry. The principal feature of Mr. Merrin's 

 history was his intense love of nature, which occupied all his spare time. He pub- 

 lished " Butterflies with the poets," and olher (some of them more pretentious) 

 works ; but undoubtedly his principal labour was concentrated on the " Lepido- 

 pterists' Calendar," which ran through two editions, and was of real use. He also 

 contributed much on the Fauna, Flora, and Archaeology of Gloucestershire. Mr. 

 C, J. Watkins has kindly furnished some hints in writing tliis notice. 



Societies. 



Birmingham Entomological Society: Fehruari/ \bth, 1904. — Annual 

 Meeting. — Mr. R. C. Bradley, Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The various Annual Reports were read, Officers and Council elected for the 

 ensuing year. 



Mr. G-. W. Wynn exhibited a box full of varieties of various Lepidoptera, in- 

 cluding amongst others the following : Argynnis valesina, Esp., from the New 

 Forest ; pale Vanessa urticx, L., from Teignmouth ; Spilosoma lubricipeda, L., ab. 

 zatima, Cr. ; black Hadena monoglypha, Hufn., from Hampton-in-Arden ; Agrotis 

 exclamation is, L., from Wyre, with spots on fore-wings confluent ; a beautifully 

 marbled variety of A. cortieea, Hb., from Lapworth ; A. cinerea, Hb., var. obscura, 

 from Wyre Forest ; and Mamestra pisi, L., with the white spots continued as a 

 distinct line right across the wings, from Sutton Park. Mr. J. T. Fountain, a series 

 of Larentia aiitumnalis, Strom, {impluviata, Hb.),bred from sallow bloom from the 

 Wyre Valley. The blossoms which still remained attached in June to the stems of 

 female trees were collected, and from them a few larvae obtained. There were but 

 a few larvae, but the resulting imagines showed almost the whole range of the 

 variation of the species, unicolorous black, barred forms, dark marbled ones, light 

 marbled ones nearly all green, and some with ochreous ground colour. Mr. H. W. 

 Ellis, eight drawers from the cabine^i^containing his collection of the Oeodephaga, 

 and gave a general account of the division, and a detailed account of the species and 

 their local occurrence. 



March 2,1st, 1904.— Mr. G-. T. Bethune-Baker, President, in the Chair. 



Rev. J. Harvey Bloom, Whitchurch Rectory, Stratford-on-Avon, was elected a 

 Member of the Society. 



Mr. J. T. Fountain exhibited a series of Agrotis fimbria, L., bred from larvae 

 from Marston Green ; also Phigalia pedaria, F., from Highbury, where he found 

 four on one lamp, and could find no others. Mr. Gilbert Smith, an aberration of 

 Arctia caja, L., bred some years ago, in which the two sides were unequal in size, 



