120 THE ENTOMOI-OGIST. 



probably there is no finer private collection of native Lepidoptera in 

 the United Kingdom than that made by the deceased gentleman. It 

 includes magnificent series of varieties and aberrations, many of which 

 have been figured and described in contemporary works on the subject, 

 the result of his own indefatigable labours, coupled with those of 

 Bond and Gregson, whose entire cabinets at their death were embodied 

 with his own. Mr. Webb was the younger son of the late Henry 

 Webb, of Eedstone Manor, Kedhill, Surrey, and very early in life 

 displayed the family passion for collecting. When barely five years 

 old he was taken to Madeira by his parents. One day he was found 

 sitting on the floor surrounded by ferns, which had been left in a 

 vasculum, trying to sort them into heaps as he had seen his father 

 do. His assistance, however, was hardly appreciated by the grand- 

 father, to whom the specimens belonged. Later he began the study 

 of Lepidoptera, but, unlike most beginners, left the " Macros " to the 

 last, and took the Tineina under his special cai'e, convinced that they 

 afforded the best field for research. His early monographs on this 

 group, although limited to purely British species, were much ap- 

 preciated on the Continent, and he was elected a life member of the 

 Entomological Society of Vienna. In this connection, too, it is worthy 

 of remark that he was one of the first to insist upon the importance 

 of variation, and to substitute for long rows of identical specimens 

 a few only of the type, leaving the rest for the more interesting 

 divergences therefrom. Mr. Webb never joined the Entomological 

 Society of London, but he was in close touch with the best known 

 working collectors of his day, among others Barrett, Gregson, 

 Sidebotham, Capper, Briggs and Vaughan, his colleagues of the 

 "Basket Club." He was, however, one of the first subscribers to 

 the ' Entomologist,' though his contributions to magazine literature 

 were few, the most important being " Notes on the Varieties of 

 Peronea cristana lately in the Collection of the late Mr. J. A. Clark," 

 'Entomologist,' xHii, pp. 198-201, 265-268; xliv, pp. 289-292, 308- 

 309. But, although entomology was his first love, he had a catholic 

 taste for science and art. Botany, palaeo-botany, palaeontology, con- 

 chology, the study of marine algse, and numismatics — all came within 

 scope of his desire "to know something of everything, and everything 

 of something." His "curiosity," in the classic sense, knew no bounds. 

 It extended to pictures, china, and antique furniture; and in science, 

 as in his hobbies, he was an authority to be trusted. At the end of a 

 long life his interests necessarily shifted from the field to the museum 

 and the sale-rooms, where he was a well-known figure, and where, as 

 elsewhere, he turned to good account the knowledge and discernment 

 achieved in the active pursuit of his subjects. In all these depart- 

 ments he will be missed by his many friends and correspondents. 

 To his son, Mr. Douglas Webb, I am indebted for these particulars 

 of his father's scientific career, and I venture to express the hope that 

 the Webb Collection of Lepidoptera at least may be kept intact, and 

 available for those especially who have given the study of variation 

 their special attention. H. R.-B. 



