4080 Death of Mr. H. E. Strickland. 



recorded to satisfy any one that my opinion of this being a first-rate 

 locality, is pretty near the truth. 



Various species of ants are also found : of the genus Formica the 

 species rufa, cunicularia, nigra, fusca, flava, and fuliginosa ; and of 

 Myrmica, rubra, laevinodis, ruginodis and fuscula. 



Ichneumonidae abound here. I took a splendid series of . the beau- 

 tiful Ichneumon viridatorius and ornatorius ; and from a connecting 

 string of varieties I am led to suspect that these constitute but one 

 species. 



In the Proctotrupidae I met with two scarce genera, — Epyris niger 

 and Sparasion frontale. 



Many nice species of Diptera also occur, — Anthrax Hottentotta in 

 great numbers. I also captured a genus apparently rare in this coun- 

 try, the Elachiptera brevipennis of Macquart. I observed it hopping 

 on a hot sand-bank, occasionally sliding down with the loose particles 

 it had disturbed, and again dancing up in unceasing restlessness. 



I took many good species of Coleopterous insects, but I leave these 

 to be enumerated by those better acquainted with that branch of En- 

 tomology than myself. Neither have I thought it advisable to make 

 mention of those species of Fossorial Hymenoptera which are univer- 

 sally distributed. 



Frederick Smith. 



British Museum, September 18, 1853. 



Death of Mr. H. E. Strickland. — " We have to announce, with deep regret, the 

 death of Mr. H. E.Strickland, who was killed on Wednesday by a railway train, whilst 

 examining the strata of a railway cutting on the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln- 

 shire line. The melancholy particulars are thus given in the daily papers : — ' Mr. 

 Strickland arrived at East Retford on Wednesday from Hull, having attended the 

 recent meeting of the British Association. He was attached to the Geological Section 

 of the Association ; and in pursuance of his practical investigations in that science, 

 he proceeded on Wednesday afternoon to examine the strata of the deep cuttings on 

 each side of the Clarbrough Tunnel, about four miles distant from Retford. A little 

 after 4 o'clock, a boy at work in the fields observed him standing between the two lines 

 of rails, near the mouth of the tunnel, on the Gainsborough side, with a pocket-book 

 in his hand, apparently engaged in making notes. At this time a coal-train was ap- 

 proaching on the down line, to avoid which he stepped off the " six-feet" on to the up 

 line; but unhappily he did so just at the moment when the Great Northern passenger 

 train was issuing from the tunnel. The train dashed upon him, and the next instant 

 he lay a shattered and shapeless corpse.'" — From the ' Athenaeum^ September 17, 1853. 



