February, IIH15. 1 2^ 



CHARLES GOLDING BARRETT. 



Charles Golding Barrett was born at Colyton, Devon, on May 5th, 

 1S36, the son of an officer in the Inland Kevenue Department. He 

 was at first intended for an engineer, and to that end worked for two 

 years as an apprentice at the Coalbrookdale Ironworks, Salop ; but in 

 1S56 he entered the Civil Service, his long and honourable career 

 therein being closed by his retirement, from nearly the highest rank 

 in his De|)artment, in April, 1899. 



Asa boy he was very fond of collecting objects of Natural History, 

 and he appears to have commenced the serious study of our native 

 Lepidoptera at about his twentieth year. We find him in August, 

 1856, sending to the then newly established Entomologist's Weekly 

 Intelligencer (vol. i, p. 165) a record of the occurrence of Colias edusn 

 at Forest Hill ; and at p. 179 of the same volume is a note by him on 

 Vanessa c-alhum in Shropshire, in which the marked differences be- 

 tween the summer and autumn broods are, we believe, referred to for 

 the first time. An interesting light is thrown on his energetic methods 

 of working in those early days by a note in the " Zoologist " (p. 6215), 

 in which he relates that, after collecting all night in West Wickham 

 Wood, and lying down towards sunrise for a nap under a fence, he 

 was awakened by the gambols of a merry dancing party of Fumea 

 nifidella ^ , which had selected his face as their ballroom ! 



His removal from London to Dublin in 1859 resulted in the 

 thorough working, in company with several other energetic collectors, 

 of Howth and other productive localities near that city ; and his 

 sojourn there was signalized by the addition by him to our fauna of 

 such notable species as Lithosia caniola, Dianthoscia capsophiln, the 

 remarkable form of D. luieago described by Henry Doubledaj as D. 

 harrettii, and the beautiful GelecTiin tarqiiiniella. A full and very 

 interesting list of his Irish captures appears in the " Zoologist " for 

 1861 (p. 7799 et seq.). 



Haslemere, where Mr. Barrett was stationed in 1862, soon became 

 classic ground to our Lepidopterists from his continuous captures of 

 rare and interesting species, among which Madopa salicalis deserves 

 a passing notice. Being transferred to Norwich in 1868, the Norfolk 

 Fens and the " Breck " and coast sands afforded a new and most in- 

 teresting field to his untiring energy, and many notes on their insect 



