10 



Series on Mimicry, &c., were purchased from Watkins and 

 Doncaster. 



In addition to the gifts fully recorded or briefly mentioned 

 above, the Hope Department has received from Canon 

 Tristram, F.R.S., a valuable set of 291 insects of many 

 orders from Palestine. The history of the collection is 

 remarkable. These insects, with others, occupied four 

 drawers in the Department which were labelled Palestine. 

 They probably reached Oxford about 30 years ago, but 

 nothing was known of them except the statements in Professor 

 Westwood's handwriting that all came from Palestine and 

 that a part had been captured by the Rev. O. Pickard- 

 Cambridge. There was also a label on one drawer with 

 these words, " Tineae named by Stainton," and on another, 

 " Oxford and Cambridge Exploration Fund. Hymenoptera 

 to F. Smith." It was known that Professor Westwood was 

 very careful of the insects and would never allow them to 

 be placed in the general collection. Enquiry not only failed 

 to ascertain the existence of an " Oxford and Cambridge 

 Exploration Fund," but showed that these insects were 

 certainly unconnected with any fund of the kind. A label 

 from one of the Tincina was then sent to Lord Walsingham, 

 who not only identified it as the handwriting of the late H. T. 

 Stainton, but also as the label of a long-lost type described 

 in "The Tineina of Syria and Asia Minor" (London, 1868). 

 Lord Walsingham furthermore stated that all these Tineina 

 had been given to him by Canon Tristram, and the Canon 

 himself wrote in confirmation. The matter was brought 

 before the Hope Curators and the Professor was authorized 

 to forward the ^6 specimens {'i,^ species and 31 types and 

 CO- types) of Tineina to Lord Walsingham. This result 

 did not encourage further researches into the history of the 

 collection. Nevertheless Canon Tristram was written to 

 about the remaining specimens, and he explained that 

 Professor Westwood had borrowed the whole collection 

 from him for the purposes of study. The specimens had 

 been principally captured by Rev. O. Pickard-Cambridge, 

 P'.R.S., in 1865, but a large number by Canon Tristram 



