280 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
founder of the Reigate Natural History Club. Nor was he a 
mere member of these and various other Societies, for he held 
important offices at one time or other in most of them. Since 
his failure in 1873, when his collections were distributed by sale, 
he had resided at Raystead, Worthing, and even up to a short 
time before his death adding to his already numerous contribu- 
tions to the knowledge of horticulture by communicating several 
papers to the Royal Horticultural Society. The loss to Science 
by his death is great, for few men have done more, directly or 
indirectly, to give that impetus to the study of Natural Science 
which caused it to make such rapid strides during the prime 
of his life, than William Wilson Saunders.—J. T. C. 
JAMES Cooper.—Mr. Cooper was born at Graysouthen, near 
Cockermouth, October 19th, 1792, and died, in the eighty- 
seventh year of his age, on August Ist, 1879, at Atherton’s Quay, 
near Warrington. In his early life he was a handloom-weaver, 
and comparatively uneducated ; but he soon removed the latter 
disadvantage by close study, and a closer observation of Nature 
in its wildest home,—the then little known, scientifically, moun- 
tain moorlands of his native county. In due course Mr. Cooper 
became an accomplished naturalist, excelling in Ornithology and 
Entomology. Living at a period when the fauna of these isles 
was less known than now, he added many new species to the 
British lists of birds and insects, Petasia nubeculosa and Cerwra 
bicuspis being amongst the latter. Mr. Cooper was appointed 
curator of the Warrington Museum in 1848, then a very small 
representative of the few Natural History collections in the 
provinces. Here he remained until 1852, when he went to live 
at Preston for a second time, and afterwards spent some time 
exploring the little-known district of Rannoch. In 1855 Mr. 
Cooper returned to his post at the Warrington Museum, where 
he remained until 1874, when he resigned the curatorship. From 
this time until his death matters were not happy with him in a 
worldly sense, illness and misfortune sorely pressing on him. 
Many scattered records from his pen will be found in the Natural 
History works of his day, and Mr. Yarrell received much 
assistance from him when writing his works. Living at a period 
earlier than most of us can remember, he was little known to this 
generation, but in his time he contributed greatly to the know- 
ledge of Natural History, and he was always one of Nature’s 
gentlemen.—J. T. C. 
