﻿332 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



OBITUARY. 



William Eickman Jeffrey, who passed away on October 14th 

 last, was born at Ashford, in Kent, in April, 1836. He was the son 

 of J. F. Jeffrey, a member of the Society of Friends. In 1845 he 

 was sent to a boarding school at Croydon and often recalled the 

 bitter winter day, when as a small boy he travelled by the South 

 Eastern Railway (not then opened to Dover) in an exposed carriage 

 without a roof ! His health being somewhat delicate, he left 

 school in 1848, and the next three years he spent at Folkestone, 

 where, often roaming over the then much less frequented Warren, he 

 caught butterflies, &c., and acquired that taste for the pursuit of 

 Natural History which he followed throughout his life. 



In 1851 he was apprenticed to the late Thomas Nickalls, watch- 

 maker, at Reigate. Here it was his good fortune to receive the 

 kindly notice of the late H. T. Stainton, in the early days of the ' In- 

 telligencer ' ; when our great and genial lepidopterist frequently came 

 to Reigate overnight, and rising next morning before the people 

 at the hotel were about, he pursued his practical field work in the 

 early morning hours, returning to London in time to superintend the 

 publishing of his weekly and other works. These pleasant hours 

 before business were much valued by W. R. Jeffrey, when invited 

 to join in the rambles; and were often recalled in the correspondence 

 which followed in after years. 



In 1857 he was at Scarborough, where the late Thomas 

 Wilkinson was then working out the life-histories of some of the 

 micro-lepidoptera. After a few years spent at Scarborough, and at 

 Guisboro', and afterwards at Satfron-Walden, he returned to his 

 native place, Ashford, Kent. Here life-histories of several of the 

 Pyrales were worked out, in conjunction with the late William 

 Buckler, with whom he was in frequent correspondence. Readers 

 of Buckler's ' Larva3 ' will find Jeffrey's name frequently mentioned 

 in that work. Mr. Buckler was so much excited by the emergence of 

 an imago of H. stagnata, that he sent a telegram (which was 

 amusingly hashed in transit) announcing that it was out. 



In 1876 he met with a specimen of Pachetra leuco2)hcsa, which 

 afterwards led to the taking of a number of that species, so that 

 it is now repi*esented in most collections. (First notice in the 

 ' Intelligencer for April i8th, 1857, when at Reigate.) Whilst at 

 Scarborough the larva of Dasypolia temjili was discovered, and at 

 Saffron-Walden that of Gelechia atrclla in May 1866. 



At Ashford he was one of the first to find the larva of 

 Hypercallia christiernella. W. R. Jeffrey also turned his attention 

 to the Coleoptera, and had a good collection of beetles. He was 

 also an ardent botanist ; of late years the study of the Cryptogams 

 took much of his spare time, and he had many long rambles in his 

 search for mosses, liverworts, and fungi. One of his two sons is 

 Curator of the Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. 

 He leaves a widow, two sons, and three daughters. He was 

 gathered to his people, at the Friends' burial ground at Kennington, 

 near Ashford, on October 16th. — C. V. 



