2l8 [f^epteinber, 



Staphylinidae, Clavicornia, Hydrophilidse, &c., forming Bandes I-IV of the 

 " Kafer von Mitteleuropa," 1 892-1904. We have to thank Herr Anton Handlirsch 

 for his assistance in the pi-eparation of this notice. 



Robert Walter Cam2>bell Shelford, whose death took place under distressing 

 circumstances at Margate on June 22nd, was born at Singapore on Augvist 3rd, 

 1872. From a very early age, as the result of a fall downstairs, he sviffered 

 from tubercular disease of the hip, which left him with a permanently stiff 

 joint. Despite this serious handicap, after a short term at King's College, 

 London, he proceeded to Emmaniiel College, Cambridge, where he took 

 an excellent degree in the Natm-al Sciences Tripos. In 1895 he became 

 Demonstrator in Biology at the Yorkshire College, Leeds, under Professor 

 L. C. Miall ; and two years later he gave up this appointment to go out to 

 Borneo as Curator of the Sarawak Museum at Kuching. In this capacity he 

 remained until 1904, adding greatly to the efficiency and value of the Museum 

 under his charge, and acquiring an extensive and varied knowledge of nature 

 in one of the richest and most interesting regions in the Tropics. His studies 

 at Sarawak resulted in several important papers, chiefly on Mimicry in Insects, 

 in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, and elsewhere ; and latterly he 

 was engaged on a work on the Natural History of Borneo — this was left 

 unfinished at his death, but it is hoped that in the near future it may be com- 

 pleted from his notes. On his return to England in 1905, after a torn- in the 

 Malay Archipelago, he accepted an appointment in the Hope Department of 

 the Oxford University Museum. Here his energies were concentrated on the 

 important collections of Orthoptera, which are now, thanks to his exertions, 

 second to none in the world as regards completeness and arrangement. The 

 Blattidse were his favourite group, and he published a large series of ex- 

 ceedingly vahiable papers on these insects in the Transactions of the Entomo- 

 logical Society and other scientific serials, besides undertaking a monograph 

 of the fainily for Wytsman's " Genera Insectorum." After some four years of 

 steady and fruitful work in the Museum, an accidental fall in 1909 led to the 

 appearance of his old complaint in an aggravated form, to which more than 

 one severe operation failed to give more than temporary relief, and hence- 

 forward he was only able to pixrsue his studies at irregtdar intervals ; finally 

 he retired, on medical advice, to Margate, where his last days were passed 

 under severe and increasing suffering, though his bright and energetic nature 

 was manifested in the last letter received from him by the writer of this 

 Memoir, only a few days before his death. 



Shelford's untimely decease leaves a gap in the ranks of systematic and 

 biononaic Entomologists which will not be readily filled, and his place in our 

 science as an authority on his favourite order of Insects is a permanent one. 

 He married in June, 1908, the daughter of the Rev. Alfred Richardson, who 

 survives him, and to whom we tender oiu- sincere condolence and sympathy. 



