SOCIETIES. 47 



cedure was to wander away after breakfast and spend the entire day 

 collecting, say, in the undercliff between Dover and Folkestone, or 

 similar grand collecting grounds. On leaving school, I had, for a 

 short time, no opportunity of studying entomology. I then settled in 

 Liverpool, and soon after became acquainted with Mr. Benjamin 

 Cooke, who recommended me to send to London for my cabinet 

 and collection. This I did, when I was delighted to be able to give 

 him between thirty and forty species not heretofore represented in 

 his collection. My collection was then in considerable disorder with 

 only a small portion of my insects named ; I well remember my 

 surprise at Mr. Cooke naming the whole of them, without reference 

 to books, according to the new nomenclature just published by Mr, 

 Henry Doubleday. His Syiiony}nic List of British Lepidoptera was 

 issued at intervals between the years 1847 and 1850. This is still 

 known as Doubleday's List, and does great credit to the compiler. 

 The doubtful species recorded as British by Rennie and others, were 

 expunged, and by comparing this List with those of France and other 

 European countries it was made almost in unison with those in use on 

 the Continent. The acquaintance of Mr. Benjamin Cooke led to that 

 with his brother, Mr. Nicholas Cooke, also with Messrs. Gregson, 

 Hodgkinson, Greening and others, and some years afterwards with 

 Mr. Alfred Owen. I had, however, no leisure for collecting Lepi- 

 doptera. I was led to commence again some years afterwards. 

 Living at Everton, then quite a country district, one morning a white 

 butterfly flew into the window, and was captured. I showed this to 

 my children and told them this was Pieris brassicce, and asked whether 

 I should let it fly or pin it out and commence collecting. The 

 children said pin it out. I did this, and was so delighted with its 

 beautiful appearance that I determined to commence again. A few 

 days afterwards I was taking the family into Wales to spend a few 

 weeks, so I purchased a net, setting boards, and all the paraphernalia 

 required for the sport, and the whole of that holiday was devoted to 

 collecting, in which the children took a lively interest. As regards 

 myself, I never enjoyed anything more, and the taking of a number of 

 Cynthia cardiii, which had been a rarity before to me, still more in- 

 creased my ardour. The result was, I purchased a cabinet, which I 

 arranged according to Doubleday's list, to contain every British species, 

 and then set to work in earnest to fill the same. Soon after this, now 

 twenty-five years ago, I settled at Huyton, which provided a grand 

 locality. For some years my gardener had all the trees in the neigh- 

 bourhood of my house sugared, and each night we together looked 

 them over. Summer holidays were always passed, either with the 

 family at some locality famous for its entomological fauna, or in 

 company with some entomological friend in the New Forest. For 

 weeks together, accompanied by my lamented friend Mr. Alfred Owen, 

 we lived in the New Forest, especially at Brockenhurst, working 

 frequently, collecting and setting our captures for eighteen hours a 

 day. This active collecting continued till the year 1874, when I 

 unfortunately met with an accident from a slip on the top of Penmaen- 

 mawr, when in the search for Acidalia cojitiguaria, a species which I 

 had just re-discovered. This accident resulted in a most serious 

 lameness from which I have never perfectly recovered. It was also 



