144 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



are not needed ; . . . . but — looking at the widespread belief of illness 

 to cattle being caused by their eating some small creature or cater- 

 pillar, which, when sent for identification, proved to be the larva of 

 the elephant hawk-moth, which most especially feeds on plants growing 

 by ditches or in wet places — it would appear to be worth while for some 

 qualified observer, when opportunity should occur, to find whether the 

 illness — the so-called " murrain " — may not be attributable to some 

 poisonous water-plants, which, if known of, could be removed." 

 As usual in these Reports, the illustrations are excellent. 



Bulletins (New Series) issued by the United States Department of 

 Agriculture. Division of Entomology, Washington, 1898 : — 



No. 15. " The Chinch Bug : its Probable Origin and Diffusion, its 

 Habits and Development, Natural Checks, and Remedial and Pre- 

 ventive Measures, with Mention of the Habits of an Allied European 

 Species. By F. M. Webster." Pp. 82, 12 figures in the text, and 

 7 maps showing distribution. 



No. 16. " The Hessian Fly in the United States. By Herbert 

 Osborn." Pp. 58, pis. 2, map, and 8 figures in text. 



No. 17. "Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Meeting of the Asso- 

 ciation of Economic Entomologists." Pp. 104. 



No. 18. " Some Miscellaneous Results of the Work of the Division 

 of Entomology. III." Pp. 101, 17 illustrations. 



OBITUARY. 



Charles Stuart Gregson died on January 31st, 1899, in the 

 eighty-second year of his age. Like most of his colleagues, Gregson 

 was a man of great powers of endurance, and in this lay much of the 

 secret of his success. He appears to have commenced writing so long 

 ago as 1842, when he published a note in the ' Annals of Natural 

 History ' on Xyssia zonaria, and he seems to have written over fifty 

 notes and papers considered sufficiently valuable to have secured a 

 place in the Royal Society's Catalogue of Scientific Papers, but these 

 are exclusive of innumerable shorter contributions to the various 

 periodicals. He took a warm interest in the Natural History Societies 

 of his district, and at one time, as secretary of one of them, issued 

 reports of the meetings, lithographed by himself. He amassed a 

 magnificent collection, wonderfully rich in varieties and aberrations, 

 and this he sold in 1888 to Mr. Sydney Webb, his eyesight having 

 failed. It was estimated to contain approximately 28,000 specimens. 

 But he immediately started afresh, and had formed another collection 

 of about 5,500 specimens after he had turned seventy-two, and we 

 are told that his sight practically recovered. He was a keen naturalist 

 in a wider sense than a collector of British Lepidoptera. At one time 

 he published a list of the Coleoptera of his district. It may truly be 

 said of him that he had in him all the requirements for a scientific 

 entomologist. — E. M. M. 



