xlvii 



of the New World. He loved to raise a smile in his pupils* faces, 

 and secured their attention to study hy arousing in them a desire 

 for knowledge rather than for academical distinction. He cared 

 little for fame or for honours, hut whatever position he undertook 

 he fulfilled its duties with energy. He spent all he could spare 

 upon his library, and delighted in his scientific labours. One of 

 his pupils assures us that he was' as much loved as admired by 

 them ; that his devotion to his favourite study appeared to 

 increase with his years ; and that his last words in public were to 

 the efi'ect — that it is, above all, in her smallest works that the 

 grandeur of Nature overpowers us. 



Our own country has also lost an entomologist of the first rank 

 during the past year, — Alexander Henry Haliday, who for more 

 than forty years devoted himself to the study of the Diptera, 

 Chalcididse, Thysanoptera, and other obscure and difficult groups 

 of insects. He is therefore little known to the majority of 

 entomologists who study Coleoptera or Lepidoj)tera exclusively, 

 but is highly esteemed hj all who are acquainted with his labours. 

 One of his oldest friends, Professor Westwood, has kindly 

 fm-nished me with the following note on his scientific character : — 

 " He was our Jirst entomologist. His ideas of classification and 

 tabulation were so logical, his latinity so classical, and his know- 

 ledge of whatever he touched so masterly, that I fear we shall be 

 long before we look upon his like again," Mr. Haliday was a 

 native of Belfast, and passed most of his life in Ireland. 

 During his latter years he lived in Italy on account of ill- 

 health, and died at Lucca on the 13th of last July, at the age 

 of sixty-three. 



The only other Members of our Society who have died during 

 the past year are, Mr. T. H. Allis, who had resigned a few months 

 before his death'; Mr. A. Haward, who had resigned in 1869; 

 Lieutenant K. C. Beavan, who died on his passage home from 

 India ; and H. H. Van de Lier, of Delft. We have also lost our 

 former Member, the Eev. J. F. Dawson, of Bedford, the well- 

 known author of the ' Geodephaga Britannica.' 



The annual publication of the Zoological Eecord renders it 

 unnecessary for me to occupy your time with any detailed 

 account of entomological literature ; I shall therefore only refer 

 to a few works which are either of special interest to ourselves, 

 or which treat of subjects of general interest and importance. 



H 



