194 [J"iy. 



Slfuieiu. 



The Lepidoptera of Lancashire and Cheshire: by John W. Ellis, 

 M.B., F.E.S. Keprinted from " The Naturalist." 8vo, 136 pp. 1890. 



This is another very useful addition to the numerous local lists of British 

 Lepidoptera, compiled with great care, nicely got up, and with a brief, but suggestive, 

 introduction as to the physical and geological features of the two counties. These 

 two counties have long been noted for the zeal of a band of entomologists, small in 

 itself, but great as to results, residing in them. The local information given is very 

 full. Those who are so inclined will find it instructive to compare the List with 

 that given in Mr. Porritt's " Yorkshire Lepidoptera," on account of contiguity. For 

 the two counties, 1355 species are recorded out of a presumed possible of 2079 as 

 British, or 65 °/g. The Micro- Lepidoptera have been admirably worked ; it is not 

 in many other districts of the same extent that 36 species of LithocoUetis and 52 

 of Nepticula have been observed ; we take these two genera casually, as giving a 

 proof of the energy of the local observers. Dr. Ellis and his fellow-workers are to 

 be congratulated on this resume of the results of their labours. 



#bituarn. 



William Sioeetland Dalian, F.L.S., died on May 28th, aged 66. Some months 

 ago progressive paralysis developed itself, but he attended to his duties almost to the 

 last, his death being due to an acute attack of the disease. He was a descendant of 

 an old Scotch family, and was born in London on January 31st, 1824, the youngest 

 son of an underwriter at Lloyds ; was educated in University College School, and 

 subsequentlv entered a merchant's office in the city. As a systematic entomologist 

 he devoted his attention almost exclusively to Hemiptera, his first paper thereon having 

 been published in 1848, in the Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., which was followed by 

 several others. Mercantile life did not suit his tastes. Afterwards he was 

 engaged at the British Museum, preparing a Catalogue of the Hemiptera, of 

 which parts i and ii appeared in 1851 and 1852, and stamped him then, and 

 to posterity, as a systematic worker of the highest order. We believe he hoped 

 to be placed on the permanent staff of the Museum ; but it was not to be, 

 and his original scientific research was thenceforward practically abandoned. He 

 had lately married (1850), and the requirements of an increasing family compelled 

 him to devote his life more especially to work of a more remunerative nature. In 

 1856, he published " A Natural History of the Animal Kingdom," which met with 

 much success, and, in the following year, his " Elements of Entomology," equally 

 useful in its narrower field. In 1858, he obtained the appointment of Curator* to 

 the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, which he held for ten years, and then became 

 Assistant Secretary to the Greologieal Society of London, a most onerous post, one 

 with which he fully identified himself, dying in harness, and universally regretted, 

 not only at the Society, but by a host of private friends outside the Society, his 

 geniality and social qualities rendering him very popular. For 22 years he officiated 



* In the "Bibliotheca Entomologica," Mr. Dallas is described as "Surgeon, in York." 

 He never had any connection with the medical profession, and we can only surmise as to the 

 source of the error. 



