XXXI, *2o] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 1 85 



to be found in Papilio, Canadian Entomologist, Entomolo- 

 gica Americana and other journals. He was called, while 

 at San Francisco, to investigate the Cottony Cushion Scale, 

 then present in but one spot in California, at San Mateo, and 

 his exhaustive report of this was published by the California 

 Academy of Sciences. In a recent letter Mr. Stretch writes 

 concerning the warning note he gave in this paper: "This 

 warning was utterly disregarded, when if appreciated it would 

 have saved millions, as I pointed out what might be the 

 result of inaction to prevent spread." 



Though Mr. Stretch knew the butterflies and collected 

 many new species, his greatest interest was in the moths, 

 and his "Illustrations of the Zygaenidae and Bombycidae 

 of North America," published in 1872 and 1873, will remain 

 as a classic of those groups. 



He knew intimately not only the other early entomol- 

 ogists of the west, but many other men of note. Edison he 

 visited when that genius was at work on the first phono- 

 graph. He was well acquainted with Mark Twain, and 

 recalls with mirth the celebrated lecture by the famous 

 humorist upon his return from the Hawaiian Islands — in 

 which not one word was uttered of the islands he had just 

 visited, the announced subject of the lecture. But Henry 

 Edwards w^as Mr. Stretch's closest friend and companion, 

 and when, in the early nineties that perfect gentleman passed 

 on, Mr. Stretch's active entomological studies practically 

 came to an end. 



At the present time, at the age of eighty-two, he is engaged 

 upon a mining hand book. A former treatise of the same 

 subject is still the standard in many universities. 



And yet, with so much accomplished, Mr. Stretch con- 

 fesses that his ONE GREAT AMBITION was never realized — to 

 collect tropical butterflies. "Ah, the dreams of youth de- 

 parted" he said regretfully as he looked upon some gay 

 exotics, but we are not so sure — it would not surprise us at 

 all should we learn that Mr. Stretch had gone to the tropics 

 to perch in tree tops, and as he had once hoped to do, to shoot 

 with a blow pipe the gorgeous Morphos! 



