HENRY DODBLEDAY. 57 



silly contentions of rival editors ; at another, exposing the 

 tricks of those who would palm off, as British, continental 

 specimens which had been relaxed and re-set ; the wliole 

 mixed up with expressions of gratitude for any little service 

 or kindness rendered to him ; — these, and such topics as 

 these, formed the staple of his letters, which, if not of a kind 

 well-fitted for publication, were at any rate the effusions of an 

 honest mind and an affectionate nature. 



Henry Doubleday was an original member (1833) and a 

 life-long member of the Entomological Society pf London ; 

 and a few notes by him may be found scattered amongst the 

 Proceedings of the Society ; but his published writings are 

 i'ew in number, and small in extent. His earliest paper was 

 on the habits of the hawfinch, and was printed in ' Jardine's 

 Magazine of Zoology,' in 1837. His first entomological 

 publication appeared in the ' Entomologist,' in 1841, on the 

 occurrence of Noctuce at sallow-blossoms. In 1842, in the 

 ' Entomologist,' and in 1843, in the ' Zoologist,' he made 

 known the now accustomed plan of " sugaring" for moths. 

 And occasionally throughout his life he contributed notes on 

 birds, bats, and other Natural-History subjects, — chiefly on 

 Lepidoptera, and descriptions of new British species, — to the 

 various magazines of the day. But his only work of magnitude 

 was the 'Synonymic List of British Lepidoptera.' Finding 

 on his visit to Paris that the English nomenclature of the 

 order, as then established by James Francis Stephens, was 

 wholly different from that in vogue on the Continent, he set 

 himself to work to compare the two, with a view to ultimate 

 uniformity ; and upon this thankless task he spent an amount 

 of study, labour, and time, which can scarcely be credited by 

 those whose recollection does not go back to the days when 

 no ' Doubleday's List' existed. The first catalogue appeared at 

 intervals between 1847 and 1850, but did not include the 

 Tineina. The second edition appeared in 1859, and included 

 the whole of the Micro-, as well as the Megalo- Lepidoptera, 

 the arrangement and nomenclature being chiefly after Guenee. 

 In this list nearly one thousand nine hundred species are 

 enumerated; a first supplement in 18()5, and a second 

 supplement in 1873, increased the number to nearly two 

 thousand one hundred species. 



It must have been a monotouous and wcaiisomi; task, 



