48 THE entomologist's EECORD. 



H. Guard Knaggs, M.D., F.L.S. 



Died January Hjth, 1908. 

 We regret to have to record the death of Dr. H. Guard Knaggs, at Folke- 

 stone, on January 16th, in his 75th year. Duringthe "sixties" of the last 

 century he was an energetic collector, devoted to field work, hut without 

 any pretensions to the scientific side of entomology. As one of the 

 editorial staff of the Entoiuolofiisfn Monthli/ Mcujazine, for the first ten 

 years of its existence, he showed considerable energy in dealing with the 

 collectors' side of entomology, and also compiled for a time for the 

 Entomnlnijists' Annual the list of rarer Macro-lepidoptera captured 

 during the year. Suddenly, in 1874, he withdrew from the entomo- 

 logical world, notice appearing in the Ent. Mo. Matj., xi., p. 1, that 

 " increasing professional duties .... compelled him to with- 

 draw from his editorial connection with the magazine." The accumu- 

 lation of his field-knowledge, and that of his friends, trifling as it 

 may appear to-day, was collected into the little booklet known as "The 

 Lepidopterists' Guide," and, almost in its primitive form, it still maintains 

 a vogue among the beginners who annually join our ranks. After 

 20 years' absolute silence entomologically, Knaggs came back to his 

 "first love," and, in various ways attempted to regain his position in 

 the entomological world, vacated 20 years before, but his entire want 

 of knowledge of what had been done in the interval, his ignorance 

 of the scientific tendency that had almost unperceived, because so 

 automatically, developed during that busy period, and now pervaded 

 the subject, left him stranded. He did not realise that the old order 

 had changed and given place to new, and so, out of touch with 

 modern thought, too advanced in life to accommodate himself to 

 modern lines, and, at last, in such bad health that he was a 

 permanent invalid, his interest in entomology became practically 

 nil. One regrets that with so much vigorous capacity he has not 

 left a more lasting mark on entomology, but probably he would him- 

 self have chosen to have lived again in the spirit of his Guide, and 

 obtained a keener sense of enjoyment in the knowledge that the 

 •youngsters would, for a time, at least, use his book, than if he had 

 made a permanent contribution for all time to our favourite science. 



Nicholas Frank Dobree. 



Died January 8th, 1908. Aged 77. 

 It is with the greatest regret that we have also to record the death 

 of Nicholas Frank Dobree, of Beverley, on January 8th, at the age of 

 seventy-seven. As he himself once said, his " amusement consisted 

 in collecting specimens of our insular Noctuas from different parts of 

 Europe," and his valuable collection has been presented to the Hull 

 Museum. He certainly knew a great deal about this part of the 

 European fauna, but his contributions to our entomological literature 

 were very limited. For some years, whilst we were engaged on the 

 volumes of The British Xoctuae and their Varieties, we had considerable 

 correspondence with him, and always found his careful remarks of 

 considerable value, whilst, about the same time, he became much 

 interested in the phenomena of melanism and melanochroism as 

 exhibited in his favourite group of moths. As an ex-President of the 

 Hull Field Naturalist's Society, and an active member of the Yorkshire 

 Naturalist's Union, he will be greatly missed by a large circle of 

 Yorkshire friends. 



