1906.] 43 



3Irs. Emma Sarah II ut chins on. — It is with deep regret that we have to record 

 the death, after a long illness, of Mrs. E. S. Hutchinson, whose name has been 

 familiar to two generations of English Lepidopterists. The daughter of Commander 

 Thomas G-ill, R.N„ a distinguished naval officer, she was born in 1820, at Llyswen 

 Yicarage, Breconshire, and married, in 18i7, the Rev. Thomas Hutchinson, Vicar 

 of Kimbolton, Herefordsliire. There being no Vicarage house, they resided at 

 G-rantsfield, where Mr. Hutchinson, who held the living for 62 years, and was an 

 ardent botanist, died in July, 1903, aged 88, and his widow passed away on 

 December lOth last, in her 86th year. 



Much interested from an early age in Natural History, the subject of our 

 notice gave no special attention to the insect world until her eldest son, when five 

 years old, captured with great delight a specim.en of Ourapteryx samhucaria. The 

 spark was thus fanned into a flame which never died out, and she thenceforth 

 devoted herself with untiring zeal and energy to the study of the Lepidoptera^ 

 though by no means neglecting her gai*den, of which she was passionately fond. 



Mrs. Hutchinson, who showed exceptional skill in rearing butterflies and moths, 

 added considerably to our knowledge of the life-histories of various local species, 

 including, to use the names that she employed, Vanessa c-album, Eupithecia con- 

 signata, E. irriguata, &c., either by recording her own observations, or by supplying 

 friends with ova or larvae wanted for description. Numerous collections have been 

 enriched by her with these and other treasures, such as Acidalia degeneraria, while 

 " The Entomologist " and " The Young Naturalist " contain scattered notes from 

 herself or her children in which are recorded their captures, in the Leominster 

 district, of many rarities, e.g., Acronycta alni, Dicranura hicuspis, Xylina semi- 

 brunnea, the two above-named Eupithecix and Cerostoma asperella^ for which the 

 only other known British locality is Grlanvilles Wootton, Dorset, where, however, it 

 has not been seen since 1831. It is worthy of mention that, after obtaining ova 

 from a female captured in 1874, she, with her daughter's assistance, continued to 

 rear E. consignata until the time of her death, no fresh blood being ever introduced 

 — a wonderful instance of the closest in-breeding being successfully carried on for 

 31 years without any loss of fertility or diminution in size ! 



By her kindness, liberality, and enthusiasm, Mrs. Hutchinson endeared herself 

 to many personal friends, and to a still wider circle of correspondents, amongst 

 whom were numbered, of a past generation, Doubleday, Newman, Stainton, Buckler, 

 Hellins, and other noted Entomologists. 



During her long life our esteemed friend suffered many sorrows and bereave- 

 ments, all borne with exemplary resignation and fortitude, as evidenced by letters 

 penned to the writer during some of her darkest days. Of her family of three sons 

 and four daughters, all of whom inherited their parents' love of Natural History, 

 one son and three daughters pre-deceased her, and, during the last three and a half 

 years of her life, she lost husband, son, daughter, and sister-in-law ! To her eldest 

 son, Mr. Thomas Hutchinson, an ex-President of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field 

 Club, as well as to his brother and sister, we would offer the sincere sympathy of 

 British Entomologists. — Eustace R. Bankes. 



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