294 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Ohiliiary. 



Death of Mr. Walcott. — Mr. W. H. L. Walcott was the 

 second son of Mr. John Walcolt, of Bath and of Croagh, in the 

 county Limerick, who was the author of several useful works 

 on Ornithology, Botany and Geology, and more particularly 

 of an illustrated Natural History of British Birds : he was 

 born oi> the lOlh of April, 1790, and at the time of his 

 death had reached the mature age of seventy-nine. He 

 inherited from his father a love of Natural History, and, at 

 different periods of his life, devoted much attention to dif- 

 ferent branches: he first directed his studies to British 

 Concholog}', of which he formed a valuable collection ; sub- 

 sequently he commenced the study of Entomology, and first 

 directed his energies to the formation of a collection of 

 British Lepidoptera, but this he did not long continue to do : 

 Coleoptera had greater attractions for him, and of this order 

 he formed a good collection, and was fortunate in discovering 

 several species for the first time in this country. About 

 twenty years ago he commenced the study of the Aculeate 

 Hymenoplera : in this order he was the fortunate discoverer 

 of several of our rarest species of bees ; Andrena ferox, A. 

 similis and A. picicornis, although not first discovered by 

 him, were only known to us by one or two examples in the 

 collections of Kirby and Desvignes : these species Mr. Wal- 

 cott supplied all the collections with, and Mr. Smith ]ios- 

 sesscs two or three undescribed Andrenidaj which Mr. Wal- 

 cott discovered in the neighbourhood of Bristol. For years 

 he was a most ardent and successful collector, and a most 

 liberal distributor of his rarities: his collection is very exten- 

 sive, as he was most anxious to enrich it with every variety 

 of each species ; his collection of Bombi is unrivalled in the 

 series of varieties, and in the beauty and perfect preservation 

 of the specimens : as a whole his collection is only less rich 

 in the number of species than that of the British Museum 

 and of Mr. Smith. 1 learn from his relatives that they have 

 no intention of parting with these treasures, which in all 

 ))robability will be deposited in the Museum of the Bristol 

 Scientific Institution. — Ednard Newman. 



