XQO [December, 



figured. The innumerable wood-cuts (from drawings by Mr. E. A. Smith) are 

 mostly clever, but sometimes show too much straining for effect, and an excessive 

 foreshortening. Of course, absolute scientific accuracy is hardly to be expected. 

 Perhaps the most unpardonable lapsus is to be found at p. 371, where a magnificent 

 species of the curious Neuropterous genus Nemoptera is figiored as an Ascalaphus ('.), 

 and the insect represented as hawking, dragon-fly-like, over the surface of a pool, 

 equally out of place for either a Nemoptera or an Ascalaphus ; and another un- 

 happy disregard of habits is to be seen on pi. xviii, where one of the CicadcB has 

 its rostrum applied, humming-bird-like, to the flower of an orchid. Mr. Wood has 

 gone oiit of liis way in naming ' new species ' in several orders, apparently from the 

 collections of the British Museum (e. g., Forficula Petropolis [!], p. 279), — -a process 

 not likely to add to the prestige of that Institution, and implying a poor return by 

 the author for the (acknowledged) civility of its ofiicers, who will, moreover, scarcely 

 approve of his publication of theu' unguarded convei-satioual remarks. 



Henry Dorville. Many of the readers of tliis Magazine will be sorry to learn 

 that this gentleman died on the 30th October, for they will mourn the loss of a 

 valued correspondent. He did not turn his attention to entomology until quite late in 

 life, though when young he had the advantage of knowing intimately several eminent 

 naturalists, such as Dr. Leach, &c. He was born in Devonshire in 1798, and at not 

 much more than thirteen years of age joined the navy, and was serving as a mid- 

 shipman on board the " BeUerophou " when that ship brought Bonaparte to England. 

 Not long after this, however, he was attacked by a constitutional malady, which 

 obliged him to relinquish his profession, and from which he was never afterwards 

 quite free. In 1819 he was appointed Yice-Consul at Venice under Hoppner, and 

 in that office gained by his courtesy and integrity the friendship of many of his 

 countrymen travelling or residing in Italy. Lord Byron, then at Venice, entrusted 

 him for a time with the care of his little daughter ' Allegra,' and in Moore's edition of 

 the poet's works, Mr. Dorville's name is often mentioned in letters to Hoppner. 



In 1823 his weak state of health compelled him to give up liis appointment, 

 and for the next ten yeai's he moved about, sometimes in England, sometimes on the 

 Continent, being part of the time at Rome, where he again fell in with Leach, who 

 •p as there with his sister, and with him used to visit Lucien Bonaparte ; he had not, 

 however, in those days sufficient knowledge of natural history to take much interest 

 in their pursuits ; only he remembered that Leach was engaged in a classification of 

 insects by their mouths, and seemed perfectly rational except on one or two points, 

 the mention of which would at once throw him off his balance. 



In 1833 Mr. Dorville finally came to England, and soon after settled at Alphing- 

 ton near Exeter, and there the latter half of his life was passed as free from change 

 as the first half had been full of it. Ilis favourite pursuit here was at first gardening, 

 but in 1856 symptoms of heart disease beginning to show themselves, and butt<.'rflies 

 happening to swarm on his flowers, he took the advice of a friend, and exchanged 

 the more severe exertion of gardening for collecting Lepidoptera, and the interest 

 excited by the new pursuit seemed to give him, then close on sixty years of age, a 

 new lease of life. Being unable to endure much fatigue, he could seldom make 

 excursions in search of the various species in their native habitats, so he set himself 

 to entice them to come to him instead. With this view he planted his garden with 



