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THE LATE Mr. C. L. de NICEVILLE. 

 Charles Lionel Augustus de Nicdville,the entomologist to the Government 

 of India, died in Calcutta last Tuesday, and the world of science loses a 

 brilliant and successful worker. He was born in 1852, and came of a noble 

 Huguenot family long domiciled in England, and was the last baron of his 

 line. His father was a member of the medical profession. He was educated 

 at St. John's College at Hurst Pier Point, near Brighton, and gave early- 

 evidence (if entomological tastes, as a schoolfellow informs us that he spent 

 all his spare time in studying insects instead of participating in the ordinary 

 school games. After leaving school he was for some time employed in a 

 bank, but came out to India, and held non-gazetted appointments from 1876, 

 his last one being that of clerk of the Calcutta Small Cause Court, in which 

 employment he was well-known for many years in Calcutta. .His holidays 

 and daily leisure he employed in the study of Oriental butterflies, on which 

 he was recognized as the greatest authority. His papers on this subject 

 were over 70 in number, and were of the very greatest importance, as he was 

 a naturalist of the all-round type, not only studying his specimens in the 

 cabinet, but collecting largely for himself , and. devoting much attention to 

 breeding. By this method he experimentally proved that in no less than 

 four cases seasonal forms of the same butterfly had been wrongly separated 

 as species, and by applying this knowledge was able greatly to elucidate the 

 history of other forms. He described many new species of butterflies and 

 contributed much to our knowledge of the distribution ('f these insects, 

 travelling in the course of his entomological researches far and wide in the 

 East from Ladakh to Japan and Sumatra. His researches were carried on 

 for many years in a room allotted to him in the Indian museum, where he 

 kept his very fine and extensive collection, which has lately been acquired by 

 purchase by that institution. It was his custom to daily resort to the museum 

 for two or three hours' study before breakfast, and thus he was able to get 

 through a great amount of work during the many years in which he pursued 

 his studies. 



His results were published in several scientific journals, especially in those 

 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and of the Bombay Natural History Society. 

 Of both of these he was a member, in the latter case an honorary correspond- 

 ing one, and he served them loyally and well. More than once he oflSciated 

 as Natural History Secretary to the Asiatic Society, and once as the Secre- 

 tary for Anthropology, and from his long connection with the Society, dating 

 from 1881, he was a living repository of its observances and traditions. To 

 the Bombay Society he was of the greatest assistance, as he long undertook 

 the task of correcting the proofs of their journal, at which he was most 

 painstaking and assiduous. The qualities of method and industry were, 

 indeed, most characteristic of him, and make his published work of the very 

 highest value, 



