247 



other of these men. Here they were encouraged to make their study 

 of value to science, to carefully work out the life-histories and the 

 habits of the species at their very doors, if their means did not extend 

 to a wider study, and at the same time they were led to see that a 

 study of only British species was insufficient to get a thorough grip of 

 the proper relationships of the order. Elected a member of the Ento- 

 mological Society of London, in 1845, Douglas was, at the time of his 

 decease, its oldest FelloAV, and the years when he was president go 

 back so far that the writer fails to remember them. 



To the lepidopterists who lived in the days of the IntL'Uujcnrcr and 

 Substitute, and to those newer men who have read these old volumes 

 with such pleasure, many details will occur to show the excellent 

 terms on which these entomological forbears of ours lived. Many a 

 jeu d'esprit, written and spoken, will occur to them, whilst Newman's 

 classic, " The Song of Bugfliwatha," with its included diatribe against 

 Spurgeon, will come back to many. To our younger readers it may 

 not be amiss to reprint some of it, to show the position that Douglas 

 and his family held in the hearts and esteem of his fellow entomolo- 

 gists. It reads : — 



Should you ask me whence this story 

 With its music, with its magic, 

 With its wonderful perfection, 

 With its beauty and its wisdom. 

 With its deep and wholesome teaching. 

 With its learning, with its science, 

 With its wild conglomeration, 



I should answer, I should tell you — 

 Jolly Douglas told me of it, 

 He who writ the ' World of Insects,' 

 He who lives at pious Kingswood — 

 Kingswood by the Blackheath station- 

 Station of the North Kent railway ; 

 Douglas with the lots of children — 

 Wondrous Alice, silk-haired Laura, 

 Laughing Polly, fattest Harry, 

 And a new and perfect baby ; 

 Jolly Douglas told me of it. 



Hear the song of Colijmhetef, 

 Water bugHy — Bugfliwatha — 

 Pretty Colymbetesfuscus. 

 Hear the song of Coli/nihetes, 

 Hear the song as Douglas told it ; 

 Douglas with the lots of children ; 

 He who writ the ' World of Insects.' 



One bright morn the silk-haired Laura 

 Wandered happy in the sunshine, 

 And she saw a water-bugfly 

 Buzzing gaily in the sunshine. 

 Just a speck on the horizon. 

 Very far off in the distance, 

 But she knew it was a bugfly, 

 Water-bugfly, Colymhetes, 

 Water-bugfly, Bugfliwatha. 

 On its way it met a watchman 

 With its stomach rainbow-tinted. 

 It is called the great dor-beetle. 

 But in science Geotrupef^. 

 Then the pretty Colipnhetes, 

 Waterbugfly, Bugfliwatha, 

 Fearful of the great dor-beetle 

 Plunged into a pool of water. 

 And the silk-haired Laura caught it, 

 And she took it to her father. 

 Took it to the Jolly Douglas, 

 And she writ a note about it. 

 " Here's a note about a bugfly. 

 Put it in the Wishiwashi, 

 Put it in the Nanibipambi ; " 

 Thus she now addressed her father. 

 In " The Substitute " he put it. 



In the same volume (p. 174), under the title of " Beetling for 

 Beginners," is another long rhyming jingle on the same lines, dedi- 

 cated to " Gentle Laura ! silk-haired Laura ! " whilst another (p. 222) 

 entitled " The Hymenoptera described," is dedicated to her baby- 

 sister, "Child of Douglas, Pauline Zeller," etc. Our readers will 

 agree with us that, in those days (1856), the name of Douglas was a 

 household word among lepidopterists, one of the most generous and 

 kindhearted of men. They will also be inclined to growl that the 

 entomological magazines were much more readable in those days. 



In 1874, Dr. Knaggs retired from his position as one of the joint 

 Editors of the Ent. Mo. Mcuf., and Douglas took his place. At that 



