a riDemoir 



OF 



NICHOLAS FRANK DOBREE 



(1830 — 1908) 



AND 



An iNTRor.ucTioN TO HIS Collection of European Noctuae. 



MR. N. F. DOBREE, of the New Walk, Beverley, the donor 

 of the Collection of European Noctuae that is one of the 

 treasures of the Hull Museum, was a native of Guernsey, 

 and belonged to an ancient and distinguished family. He came 

 to Hull in early hfe under the charge of Sir William Wright, and 

 about 1850 started in business as a grain and seed merchant, his 

 business offices being situated in the fine old Elizabethan house in 

 High Street, Hull, which was the birthplace of William Wilberforce. 

 There he remained till towards the close of 1906, when " Wilber- 

 force House " was acquired by the Corporation for use as a museum 

 of local antiquities. 



Mr. Dobree travelled largely on the Continent, and was 

 an able linguist in German, French, Swedish, and Italian. On 

 these travels he made the acquaintance of many of the leading 

 Continental entomologists-, including Dr. Staudinger and Herr 

 Louis Graeser. Mr. Dobree's inclinations had always lain in. the 

 direction of natural history pursuits, and about 1871 his attention 

 became directed to the wide field open for observation among the 

 European Noctuae. With his friend, the late George Norman, 

 he therefore set about forming such a collection of this group of 

 the lepidopterous fauna as would show the geographical distribu- 

 tion of the various forms. 



From 1871 to 1888 ' his amusement consisted '—to use his 

 own words—' in collecting specimens of our insular Noctuae from 

 different parts of Europe,' * and the collection so formed became 



* Used in the sense as understood by Dr. Staudinger in his definition of the 

 range of European Lepidoptera. 



