NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 93 



specimen with broad light borders to ocelli 70s., with lanceolate 

 ocelli 25s. and 30s., and a pale golden male of EpinepMe tithomts 

 70s. The total of the day's sale was, in round numbers, £750.— R. A. 



The Sale op Dr. Chapman's Library. — This sale, which 

 took place at Stevens's on March 15th, was a notable ento- 

 mological event, for such an assemblage of books treating on the 

 science has not been seen in the auction rooms for many years. 

 " The Doctor," in his choice of books as in everything else, was 

 philosophical. It was his invariable custom, before making up his 

 mind on any subject that was being studied, to find out everything 

 possible about it and to become acquainted with everything impor- 

 tant that had been written upon it ; and therefore it was necessary 

 for him to have an exhaustive library of the subjects of his studies at 

 hand for reference. He had for this reason acquired practically all 

 the books dealing with the Lepidoptera of various parts of the world; 

 all the more important works on the other orders ; and a large 

 accumulation of books on other sciences, apart from entomology. The 

 gathering of buyers was not what might have been expected for such 

 an occasion, and the dealers, as has unfortunately too often been the 

 case, reaped a rich harvest. Whilst some of the lots, and especially 

 those embracing important British works, fetched fair prices — for 

 there was competition here — others, especially the long series of 

 foreign magazines and the publications of scientific societies, were 

 practically given away. Amongst some of the more important lots 

 and prices were the following : Curtis,' ' Brit. Ent.,' complete — £3 10s., 

 about one-fifth of its value; Stephens' 'Brit. Ent.,' £3; Barrett's 'Lep. 

 Brit. Isles,' the large paper edition with coloured plates, £18 ; 

 Buckler's ' Larvae ' fetched £9 — this figure is within a few shillings of 

 its price as issued to subscribers; 'British Aphides,' Buckton, 

 £4 15s. — the issue price was £4 4s. ; Fowler's ' Coleoptera of the Brit. 

 Isles,' £12 ; Stainton's ' Nat. Hist. Tineina,' £2 15s. ; Saunders' 

 ' Hemiptera,' £2 15s. ; ' Aculeate Hymenoptera,' by the same author, 

 £3 15s. ; Verrall's 'Brit. Diptera,' all parts issued, £3 5s.; Harris' 

 ' Aurelian,' a fine copy, £3 10s. ; another copy, £1 15s. ; ' Novitates 

 Zoologies,' 25 vols., £8 ! Amongst the British magazines the follow- 

 ing prices were obtained; 'Entomologist,' the first 36 vols., 

 including the rare vol. i (1840), £7 10s. ; another series, 1887 to 

 1920, £5; 'Ent. Mon. Mag.,' 1864-1921, £9; 'Ent. Record,' 32 vols, 

 (all issued), £5; 'Ent. Intelligencer,' 10 vols, (all issued), £1 ; a 

 complete set of the ' Transactions of the Entomological Society of 

 London ' sold for £21— about half what it usually fetches. The 

 slump in foreign magazines and publications of foreign societies 

 embraced the following: ' Stettiner Ent. Zeit.,' 72 vols., 63! ' An- 

 nates Soc. Ent. Belgique,' 59 vols., £3 ! ' Annales Sac. Ent. France,' 

 complete, 91 vols., £3 ! ' Berlin Ent. Zeit.,' 58 vols., 65. The only 

 non-British magazine that produced a fair value was ' Iris, ol which 

 35 vols, were sold for £8 10s. I suspect the reason lor this was that 

 a certain well-known entomologist, who 1 know wanted a copy, 

 purchased it. The tragedy of prices was, however, reached in the 

 sale of a very fine copy of Hiibner's beautiful ' Sammlung Euro- 

 paisches Schmetterlinge,' which was sold to a well-known dealer lor 



