OBITUARY. 395 



His first paper, contributed to the pages of the ' Entomologist's 

 Monthly Magazine ' at the age of twenty, appeared in June, 1868, 

 and was followed at longer or shorter intervals by other articles 

 from his pen, the last of his writings to be published making its 

 appearance in April of the present year. Conservative by nature as 

 well as in politics, the subject of this appreciation was rightly 

 opposed to unnecessary changes in nomenclature, and never failed 

 to deprecate anything in the shape of hasty or ill-considered work, 

 while carelessness and incompetence found in him a somewhat un- 

 sparing critic. 



Leaving to the entomological journals the task of enumerating in 

 detail Verrall's contributions to the literature of Diptera, some 

 reference must now be made to his more important publications. 

 ' A List of British Diptera ' (1888), of which a second edition, revised 

 and expanded, appeared in 1901, proved a boon to many a student, 

 and for the first time provided those entomologists who devote them- 

 selves to the study of our three thousand odd species of British flies 

 with a reliable basis for their investigations. 



It was not until almost the last decade of his life that Verrall 

 commenced to produce his monumental work on ' British Flies,' 

 which, as planned by its author, was intended to consist of fourteen 

 volumes. The first of these to be published made its appearance on 

 January 1st, 1901, and at the present time its only successor is a 

 volume issued exactly eight years later (on January 1st, 1909). It 

 is on these two books — each of large octavo size, consisting of some 

 eight hundred pages, admirably illustrated with text-figures by the 

 author's nephew, Mr. J. B. Collin, and, in the case of the later of the 

 two, largely in small type — that Verrall's reputation as an entomo- 

 logist will rest. As to the verdict of posterity there need be no 

 apprehension. Thoroughness was the leading characteristic of all of 

 Verrall's work, and the " capacity for taking pains," which was his 

 in a marked degree, prevented him from publishing anything hasty 

 or unreliable. Such a production as this naturally has the defects 

 of its qualities. The two volumes that Verrall has left behind him, 

 which deal chiefly with some of our larger and more conspicuous 

 flies, are works of reference, whose very weight and bulk would pre- 

 vent their use anywhere but in the study ; and the ordinary British 

 collector, who is not much interested in the details of synonymy, 

 might possibly have preferred a handbook containing nothing but 

 synoptic tables for the determination of species, and including the 

 whole Order. To those who wish to verify the designations of their 

 captures for themselves, however, the published volumes of ' British 



