CAMBRIDGE. 5 1 



published than I did at seeing, in Stephens' ' Illustra- 

 tions of British Insects/ the magic words, u captured 

 by C. Darwin, Esq." I was introduced to entomology 

 by my second cousin, W. Darwin Fox, a clever and 

 most pleasant man, who was then at Christ's College, 

 and with whom I became extremely intimate. After- 

 wards I became well acquainted, and went out collect- 

 ing, with Albert Way of Trinity, who in after years 

 became a well-known archreologist ; also with H. 

 Thompson of the same College, afterwards a leading 

 agriculturist, chairman of a great railway, and Member 

 of Parliament. It seems therefore that a taste for 

 collecting beetles is some indication of future success 

 in life ! 



I am surprised what an indelible impression many 

 of the beetles which I caught at Cambridge have left 

 on my mind. I can remember the exact appear- 

 ance of certain posts, old trees and banks where I 

 made a good capture. The pretty Panagceiis critx- 

 major was a treasure in those days, and here at Down 

 I saw a beetle running across a walk, and on picking 

 it up instantly perceived that it differed slightly from 

 P. crux-major, and it turned out to be P. quadripunc- 

 tatiis, which is only a variety or closely allied species, 

 differing from it very slightly in outline. I had never 

 seen in those old days Licinus alive, which to an 

 uneducated eye hardly differs from many of the black 

 Carabidous beetles ; but my sons found here a speci- 

 men, and I instantly recognised that it was new to 

 me ; yet I had not looked at a British beetle for the 

 last twenty years. 



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