Vol. xxiv] ENTO^IOLOGICAL NEWS. 9I 



OBITUARY. 



W. G. Wright. 



William Greenwood Wright died at his home on F. Street, 

 in San Bernardino, Calif., on Sunday afternoon, December 1, 

 1912, at the age of about 83. He had been in apparently good 

 health and spirits for some time past. He was found dead 

 sitting in his chair, a newspaper fallen from his relaxed grasp. 

 The cause was heart failure, and his death must have been an 

 instantaneous and painless one. 



He was born near Newark, New Jersey, the exact date not 

 ascertainable ; his early education was limited. He was a 

 soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War, and soon after 

 the close of that conflict he must have come to California ; 

 where he resided a few years in Los Angeles, and where his 

 only child was born and died in infancy. He went to San 

 Bernardino about 1873. and conducted a planing-mill for many 

 years. About fifteen years ago he retired from business, and 

 spent his time in collecting and gathering material for his book 

 on butterflies. His wife died a number of years ago and he 

 leaves no near relatives. His collection of butterflies and li- 

 brary he has left to the California Academy of Sciences in San 

 Francisco; some other collections are to be sold. Mr. S. B. 

 Parish, the pioneer botanist, a close friend of Mr. Wright and 

 the executor of his estate, has given me the few data pertain- 

 ing to his life that are now obtainable; he was a recluse in all 

 phases of his life, and the most we have is that indefinable 

 quality which only personal acquaintance can give; and his 

 v/ritings and contributions to science. 



Mr. Wright traveled all over the W'est Coast from Alaska to 

 ]\Iazatlan. ]\Iexico, collecting specimens in various departments 

 of natural history, but we do not, at present, know the details 

 of his trips. He published an interesting account of his travels 

 in ^Mexico, in Zoe, a biological journal printed in San Fran- 

 cisco from 18901893; an article in the Overland Monthly for 

 1884, entitled. "A Naturalist in the Desert," and an article on 

 collecting in Alaska, which I cannot now locate. Other papers 

 are found in Entomologica Americana, Canadian Entomologist, 



