1910.] 95 



To those who knew Mr. Big-nell it is not stirprising that he should have 

 been so successful in his varied nndertaking-s, for he was a man possessed of 

 strong- will-power, combined with ing-ennity and enthusiasm, and, above all, he 

 liad the ability to plod. To him failures were but stimnli to further exertion 

 and experiment. His collecting- and breeding apparatus bore evidence to his 

 inventive power, and was, for the most part, either original in scheme, or 

 distinct in some clever departixre from the ordinary, and there was biit little 

 of all his impedimenta belli that had not been made by himself. The well- 

 known " Bignell beating tray " is a lasting memento of his skill in adaptation. 

 In addition to special knowledge in several orders of Insects, Mr. Bignell was 

 a good all-round field naturalist, and very few questions wovvld arise during 

 a comitiy ramble to which he could not afford illuminating answers. He had, 

 too, a rich fund of humovu% and delighted to joctdarly entangle a qviestioner. 

 To his colleagues, his best information was always available. 



Amongst his contributions to the literature of Entomology may be 

 mentioned "A List of the Geometrina of Plymoxxth " in the Ti-ansactions of 

 the Plymouth Institution ; " The Ichneumonidie and Braconidse of South 

 Devon " in the Trans. Devonshire Association ; the Lists of the Parasites bred 

 from the lai-vse and pupae of species included in the volumes of Buckler's 

 " Larvae," published by the Eay Society ; and, in the Victoria History of Devon, 

 Vol. I, he was responsible for the lists of, and articles on, the Orthoptera, the 

 whole of the Hymenoptera, the Hemiptera and the Aphidse. He was a freqvient 

 lectiu'er at the Athenseiim, and occui^ied the Presidential Chair of the Plymoutli 

 Institution in 1893-4. 



In his married life he was fortunate in possessing a partner who extended 

 much practical sympathy to his entomological work, and who was always 

 rejoiced at his successes. In the trip to Corsica which they made together in 

 1899, to spend some months with the late Eev. T. A. Marshall, it was Mrs. 

 Bignell who discovered the iinique Anthribid which is now the type of a new 

 genus and species, Spiathorrhamphus corsicus. 



Mr. Bignell leaves a widow and three davighters, two of whom are married. 

 His only son was di-owned on the high seas many years ago. — J. H. K. 



George Willis Kirlcalcly was born in London and educated at the City of 

 London School. His death, following a sxu-gical operation in San Francisco, 

 took place on February 2nd, 1910, at the early age of thii-ty-six. As a school- 

 boy he was interested in Natural History, and more especially in the collection 

 and study of fossils, as well as of Crustacea and aqviatic insects Subsequently 

 he became a special student of the Hemiptera, tlie aquatic species being his 

 particular favourites ; in connecti®n with these he specially investigated tlie 

 structural characters of the stridulatory organs of the Gorixidse. In 1903 he 

 joined the writer in Honolulu, to become one of the Assistant Entomologists 

 under the Board of Agi-iculture and Forestry of the Territory of Hawaii. 

 Shortly after his arrival he had the misfortune to sustain a bad fracture of the 

 leg in a fall from a horse. Several painful opei-ations that he underwent led to 

 no satisfactory result, and the final one was in fact shortly followed by his 



H 2 



