52 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Vol. 

 xxxii.: — 



" A Contribution to the Study of Individual Variation in the Wings 

 of Lepidoptera." By William L. W. Fikld. Pp. 389-396. 



OBITUABY. 



William Burgess Pryer, whose death is announced at Port Said 

 on January 7th, was born on March 7th, 1843. In his earlier days he 

 was an enthusiastic collector of British Lepidoptera. About 1860 he 

 went out to China in connection with the silk and tea house of his 

 relatives Messrs. Thorne Bros., Shanghai, where he remained for twelve 

 years, and devoted considerable attention to collecting the Lepidoptera, 

 of which very little was then known. An account of an expedition he 

 made to the wonderful Snowy Valley appeared in the 'Entomologist's 

 Monthly Magazine,' vol. xiv. Among the results of his work in China 

 was the discovery of many new species, which were described by Messrs. 

 Butler, Moore, and others, and a few by himself in a paper in the 

 ' Cistula Entomologiea,' vol. ii. The collection he formed there after- 

 wards passed into the possession of Messrs. Salvin and Godman and 

 the British Museum. After a short experience of business in London 

 he started, in 1877, for North Borneo, and was one of the pioneers of 

 the British North Borneo Company, which founded the new colony at 

 Sandakan. He was appointed British Besident in 1878, and subse- 

 quently the British Consular Agent. During the first few years of his 

 residence there, he formed considerable collections of both Lepidoptera 

 and Coleoptera, and wrote several accounts of journeys he made into 

 the interior. His increasing duties in connection with the development 

 of the newly-acquired territory prevented him, however, from doing 

 much in his favourite pursuit of entomology during the last few years. 

 Owing to failing health, he decided to return to England on sick 

 leave ; and on the passage home more serious symptoms of his illness 

 necessitated his detention at Port Said, where he succumbed within a 

 few weeks of his arrival. His genial and generous disposition made 

 him many friends who will feel his loss ; and his remarkable tact and 

 courage in dealing with the rebellious natives, among whom he pro- 

 ceeded on the occasion of several hostile outbreaks, practically unarmed, 

 was a great factor in the success which has attended the extension of 

 British rule over the large region of North Borneo. He was the elder 

 brother of Mr. H. Pryer, well known in connection with Japanese 

 Lepidoptera, who died in 1888 ; and was a corresponding member of 

 the Zoological Society since 1880. — 0. E. J. 



