93 



3u flDeniorianu 



SAMUEL JAMES CAPPER. 



For more than forty years probably no north of England 

 entomologist has been better known or more highly esteemed 

 than Mr. Samuel James Capper, of Huyton, Liverpool, whose 

 death, at the patriarchal age of nearly eighty-seven years, took 

 place on the 21st of January last. 



Born at Highbury Place, London, on April 28th, 1825, he 

 was, when twelve years old, sent to a ' Friend's ' School at 

 Epping, where, as is so often the case at schools of the Society 

 of Friends, the boys were encouraged in the pursuit of natural 

 history, and where young Capper made the acquaintance of 

 the brothers Edwp.rd and Henry Doubleday, who helped him 

 considerably in the study of the lej)idoptera, which he had 

 commenced. After leaving school he had little time for Natural 

 History work, until he removed to Liverpool, about the year 

 184O ; but soon after this he made the acquaintance of the 

 brothers Nicholas and Benjamin Cooke, C. S. Gregson, Noah 

 Greening, and other well-known lepidopterists of the time, and 

 with whom, in the intervals of a very busy life, he made fre- 

 quent excursions in pursuit of lepidoptera to various noted 

 localities, their favourite one in their own district being Delamere 

 Forest. Later, Mr. Capper became very fond of the New 

 i-^orest ; and still later, of North Wales. It was on one of his 

 visits to the last-mentioned district, that he re-discovered the 

 pretty Acidalia coniifitaria, for, although the species had been 

 first recorded as British by Mr. Weaver in 1855, and a casual 

 specimen had be;en taken later by Mr. G. H. Kenrick of Bir- 

 mingham, little was known of it until Mr. Capper found it to be 

 fairly common on the mountains at Penmaenmawr, which 

 district still remains its only known British habitat. It was 

 on one of his expeditions on these \\'elsh mountains that he 

 unfortunately slipped and injured one of his legs, from which 

 he was slightly lame for the rest of his life, and this probably 

 stopped his outdoor collecting much earlier than would other- 

 wise have been the case. 



He was always intensely interested in the Lancashire and 

 Cheshire Entomological Society, of which, at the preliminary 

 meeting which founded the Society, held at the residence 

 of Mr. Nicholas Cooke, he was chosen the first President, an 

 honour which was re-conferred upon him year by year from 

 1877 until the present year, a period of forty-five years. 



He was never more happy than when he had a number of 

 entomological friends at his house, looking over his line collec- 

 tion, and ' talking entomology ' ; and those of us who were 

 privileged to join in the delightful entomological garden parties 



igr2 Mar. i. 



