OBITUARY. 47 



burn's name disappeared from the title-page after the second volume ; 

 but no further alteration in the staff occurred till 1874, when Dr. 

 Knaggs found it necessary, owing to the increasing requirements of 

 his profession, to retire from the active pursuit of entomology, and 

 to resign his post as editor of the magazine, although he outlived all 

 the other founders. His most important published entomological 

 work is his ' Lepidopterist's Guide,' which has gone through several 

 editions, and originally appeared in the form of papers in the early 

 volumes of the 'Entomologist's Monthly Magazine.' However, Dr. 

 Knaggs still retained his interest in entomology, and continued to 

 write occasional notes, the last of which appeared as recently as 

 July, 1906. Dr. Knaggs was very fond of Folkestone, where several 

 of his most important captures had been made, and he bought a 

 house there as an occasional seaside residence ; and on retiring from 

 his practice in North London (in which he was succeeded by his son, 

 Dr. H. Valentine Knaggs) he settled there for the remainder of his 

 life. His death supervened on a long and painful illness on 

 January 16th, 1908, and he was buried at Highgate Cemetery on 

 January 20th. His widow, one son, and five daughters survive 

 him. For some years Dr. Knaggs was a Fellow of the Linnean as 

 well as the Entomological Society, but he had retired from both 

 before his death. 



W. F. KiRBY. 



Nicholas Frank Dobree. 



The death of Mr. N. F. Dobr6e, of Beverley, East Yorkshire, 

 occurred on January 8th, 1908, at the age of seventy-seven. A native 

 of Guernsey, and belonging to an ancient and distinguished family, 

 Mr. Dobr6e first came to Hull under the charge of Sir William 

 Wright, and about 1850 started in business as a grain and seed 

 merchant, his business offices being situate 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 

 " Wilberforce House" was acquired by the Corporation for use as a 

 museum of local antiquities. 



Mr. Dobree travelled largely on the Continent, and was a perfect 

 linguist in German, French, Swedish, and Italian. On these travels 

 he made the acquaintance of many of the leading continental ento- 

 mologists, including Dr. Staudinger and Herr Louis Graeser. Mr. 

 Dobr6e'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 Mr. George Norman, he therefore set about 

 forming such a collection of this group of the lepidopterous fauna as 

 would show the geographical distribution of the various forms. This 

 he continued for many years, and the collection he formed became 

 generally recognized as the best private collection of Noctuae in this 

 country. 



As a keen student Mr. Dobree gained a correspondingly wide 

 knowledge of the group, and he was a frequent contributor to the 

 pages of this Journal between the years 1875 and 1893, his most 



