68 [March, 



Samuel James Capper — Fox- the past forty or more years, probably no North 

 of England Entomologist has been better known, or more highly esteemed, than 

 Mr. Samuel James Capper, whose death, at the advanced age of 86, took place 

 at Huyton, near Liverpool, on January 21st, last. Born at Highbvu'y Place, 

 London, on April 28th, 182.5, he was, at the age of 12 years, sent to a Friends' 

 School at Epping, where the boys were encouraged in the pursuit of Natural 

 History, and where he made the acquaintance of the brothers Edward and 

 Henry Dovibleday, who helped him mxich in the study of Lepidoptera, which he 

 had commenced. After leaving school he had little time for natural history 

 work until he removed to Liverpool about the year 1846 ; but soon after this 

 he made the acquaintance of the brothers Nicholas and Benjamin Cooke, 

 C. S. Gregson, Noah Greening, and other well known Lepidopterists of the time ; 

 and with whom, in the intervals af a very biisy life, he made frequent ex- 

 cvu-sions in pursuit of Lepidoptera to various noted localities, the favourite one 

 being Delamere Forest. Later he became very fond of the New Forest ; and 

 still later, of North Wales, usixally making the pretty little village of Llanfair- 

 fechan his headquarters. It was on one of his visits to this last-mentioned 

 locality that he re-discovered Acidalia contiguaria, for although the species 

 had been fii'st taken as British by Mr. Weaver, in 18.55, and a casual specimen 

 near Conway by Mr. G. H. Kenrick, of Birmingham, a little later, little was 

 known of it until Mr. Capper found it to be fairly common on the mountains 

 at PenmaenmawT. He had the species to himself for very many years, breeding 

 it in large nmubers, and it proved a veritable "gold mine" to him for exchange 

 purposes, for through it he was enabled to add to his collection many of the 

 then greatest rarities. It was, however, on one of his expeditions to these 

 Welsh mountains that he unfortvmately slipped, and so injured one of his knees 

 that he was slightly lame for the rest of his life, and which probably stopped 

 his outdoor collecting much earlier than would otherwise have been the case. 



He was intensely interested in the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological 

 Society, and at the preliminary meeting held at the residence of Mr. Nicholas 

 Cooke, when that Society was founded, he was elected President, an honour 

 which he retained continuously from February 24th, 1877, imtil the time of his 

 death, a period of nearly forty-five years — surely a record of its kind. 



He was never so happy as when he had a number of Entomologists around 

 him at his house, looking over his fine collection and "talking Entomology "; and 

 those of us who joined in the delightful garden parties which he used to give 

 to Entomologists at Huyton Park thirty or more years ago, well remember 

 what an enthusiastic and charming host he made. One of the Entomologists 

 he met at this time was Mr. F. N. Pierce, with whom so close a friendship 

 sprang up, that for the past twenty-five years, Mr. Pierce has spent one evening 

 almost every week with Mr. Capper, arranging and re-arranging the insects in 

 his large collection, and in other mixtually interesting work. The collection 

 itself, as is well-known, was recently disposed of intact to some South of 

 England Lepidopterists. 



For some years Mr. Capper was a Fellow of the Linnean Society ; and had 

 been a Fellow of the Entomological Society of London since 1890. In bxisiness 



