THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 237 



its ambitious programme, and the known zeal, perseverance, 

 and energy, of its projector — perhaps has no equal in the 

 annals of entomological Science. Mr. Crotch was the grand- 

 son of Dr. Crotch, so celebrated as a musical composer; the 

 son of the Rev. JNIr. Crotch, of Uphill Mouse, Weston-super- 

 Mare ; and the brother of Dr. W. D. Crotch, who has attained a 

 European celebrity by his labours in Natural History, more 

 especially in Coleopterous insects, of which he discovered 

 numerous new species, — forty-four in the Island of Canary 

 alone, — as recorded by jNIr. WoUaston in his ' Catalogue of 

 the Coleopterous Insects of the Canaries,' published in 1864. 

 Mr. G. R. Crotch was born in the year 184,1, and very early 

 exhibited the characteristics which so eminently distin- 

 guished him in after life : indefatigable industry in pursuit 

 of a beloved Science, and perfect disregard of his own 

 personal comfort, and even health. These attributes were so 

 remarkable as to take the form of an eccentricity, — meat, 

 drink, and rest, seemed to him matters of indifference : if 

 night found him on what he considered good collecting 

 ground, rather than leave it, with the intention of returning 

 on the morrow, he has been known to lie down under the 

 shelter of a hay -stack or sedge-stack in the fens, and there 

 remain, until the return of daylight enabled him to resume 

 his labours. This devotion to Entomology continued and 

 increased, until it became the absorbing passion and occu- 

 pation of his life. At first he seems to have given his 

 attention more especially to British Lepido])tera ; and his 

 first contribution to entomological literature was on a butter- 

 fly, generally esteemed of rare or accidental occurrence, 

 Thecla Betulae, which he observed in great abundance flying 

 round the lops of high trees in company with its congener 

 T. Quercus. This was in 1856, and three years later he 

 searched the fen districts of Cambridgeshire: here he dis- 

 covered Leucania Elymi ; and here, too, he gave the first 

 instance of that perseverance, skill, and thoroughness, in 

 collecting Coleoptera, which subsequently became his dis- 

 tinguishing characteristic. 



In 18G2 he published his first notice of anls'-nest beetles, 

 and from that time he sceuis to have given no rest to his 

 hands, to his pen, or to his mind. 



In 1863 he published the first edition of ' Catalogue of 



