128 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



eighteen, and then knew Epping Forest well (quite wild, with rahhit- 

 warrens and impassable bogs) ; he was in the habit of visiting a 

 naturalist-gamekeeper, who lived in Queen Elizabeth's Lodge. Sub- 

 sequently Mr. Piffard travelled in Spain, Asia Minor, and America. 

 He lived in Algeria for some years, learnt x\rabic when about twenty, 

 and assimilated something of the native religion. He was a great 

 sportsman and hunter, walked forty-two miles at a stretch, and 

 several times narrowly escaped death in Northern Africa. He never 

 earned money, for which there was no need, as his charming residence 

 amply testified. His first love was the Coleoptera, but he amassed 

 Diptera for the National Collection during a decade from 1892. He 

 had been extremely melancholic, through severe family affliction, for 

 some years, and had long retained a house nurse ; but his final break- 

 down was surprisingly sudden. He sustained a fall and injured his 

 leg, though much recovered by September; during the autumn, how- 

 ever, he gradually became more feeble and ill, till the end was reached 

 in December. His collections and books are passed to his nephew, 

 Mr. C. T. Gimingham ; the former are considerable, though the 

 nation is the richer for his Diptera, and the writer for his Parasitic 

 Hymenoptera. Eeticent in his writings and at all times retiring, his 

 personality was lavish of all good things, both entomological and hos- 

 pitable, to those he liked, as many entomologists both of this and the 

 last generation can testify. Piffard, Chitty, Saunders, Bignell — wdrat 

 havoc is wrought in our vanguard ! Sic transit gloria mundi. 



C. M. 



George Carter Bignell. — Mr. Bignell was born at Exeter on 

 March 1st, 1826, and educated at St. John's College there ; he joined 

 the Royal Marines at Stonehouse in 1812. During the Civil War of 

 1817 he was on board the ' Superb,' and took part in the capture of 

 the rebel army. Later he became employed in the Office of Works, 

 and filled a post in Millbay Barracks. In 1862 he was discharged 

 with the rank of Barrack-Master- Sergeant, with a Long Service 

 Medal. For the Stonehouse District he was almost immediately 

 appointed Registrar of Births and Deaths, Poor Law Officer, and 

 Vaccination Officer. In a more scientific way he contributed to the 

 'Entomologist' from 1864, the 'Young Naturalist,' and was on the 

 editorial staff of the ' British Naturalist.' The consummation of 

 these labours came in 1893, when he was elected President of the 

 Plymouth Institution and Devon and Cornwall Natural History 

 Society. He was a first-rate field entomologist, attacking all Orders 

 of insects, and received a bronze medal from the Royal Cornwall 

 Polytechnic Society for a paper on Land and Freshwater Shells. 

 Recently he suffered from an attack of influenza, partially recovered, 

 but finally succumbed on the supervention of bronchitis at The 

 Ferns, Home Park Road, Saltash, barely breathing into his eighty- 

 fourth birthday. His entomological collection (in whole or part) 

 was presented by him to the Municipal Museum at Plymouth last 

 November. 



C. M. 



