100 ENTOxMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



Riley, an excellent head of a bureau, but sometimes uncomfortable and too inde- 

 pendent as a subordinate, at times got into hot water with his superiors in the Depart- 

 ment. He was sensitive to criticism, and was somewhat prone to controversy, usually, 

 however, winning in such encounters. Until one came to know him more intimately he 

 was liable to be misunderstood, and by his occasional bluntness made some enemies, but 

 as years rolled on these passing antagonisms melted away. 



Vigorous in mind and body, though of late years suffering from overwork, fond of 

 out-door sports, he was a fearless rider on horseback, and an adept with the bicycle, on 

 which, alas, he rode to his death. 



His hospitable house at Sunbury was beautified by rare flowers, shrubs and trees, of 

 which he was passionately fond. He was domestic in his tastes, and left a wife and five 

 children to mourn his loss. 



Riley left an indelible mark on his time, and the historians of natural science and 

 of agriculture in America will scarcely ignore the results of thirty years of earnest work 

 in pure and applied entomological science. 



His scientific honors were well deserved. He was a member of many societies at 

 home and of the entomological societies of France, Berlin, Switzerland and Belgium. 

 He was elected in 1889 an Honorary Fellow of the Entomological Society of London, 

 and was also Honorary Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society of Great Britain. He 

 was for two years President of the Academy of Science of St. Louis, being the youngest 

 member so honored. He was founder, and for two terms President, of the Entomological 

 Society of Washington, one of the founders of the Biological Society of that city, and 

 an honorary member of the horticultural societies of Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri. 

 The Kansas State Agricultural College gave him the degree of A.M., and the Missouri 

 State University, in 1873, conferred upon him the degree of Ph. D. He was lecturer 

 on entomology at Cornell University and at other institutions. 



A. S. Packard, 

 Brown University. 



