NOTES AND QUERIES. 185 



have shared, but which unfortunately he did not publish. In 1845 he was 

 elected a member of the Entomological Society of London, and formed 

 many friendships amongst the entomologists of the time, of whom but very 

 few remain. It was not until 1869 that his first paper was contributed to 

 the Society. He had worked assiduously for many years at the Micro- 

 Lepidoptera, but in 1868 he undertook a series of experiments on the 

 relation between insectivorous birds and the colour and edibility of 

 Lepidoptera and their larvae. This paper was the outcome of these 

 experiments, and a second followed. With Darwin he was in regular 

 correspondence, and frequent reference is made to these experiments in 

 the ' Descent of Man ' and other of Darwin's works. His later writings 

 have appeared principally in ■ The Entomologist,' the last of them being 

 published in the number for April, which contained, alas ! the announcement 

 of his death. He became Vice-President and Treasurer of the Entomological 

 Society, and Fellow of the Linnean, Zoological and Royal Horticultural 

 Societies, and was a member of the South London Entomological Society 

 from its commencement. He was an active member of the Finance Com- 

 mittee of the Zoological Society, and was on the Scientific and Narcissus 

 Committees of the Royal Horticultural Society, where he was a regular 

 attender at the fortnightly exhibitions. His love of gardening found room 

 to develop after his removal to Beckenham, and it was a pleasure to go 

 round the shows with him, and hear of his plants, and how many of them 

 had especial interest from their connection with different friends, or with 

 places he had visited. At one time he and his friend Edward Newman 

 used to spend their Saturday afternoons at the Zoological Gardens, the 

 interest of such visits being perhaps all the greater from the fact that their 

 opposite views on the Darwinian theory gave rise to frequent philosophical 

 argument. Mr. Weir entered the Customs Service in 1839, and remained 

 until 1885 ; in 1874 he became Accountant and Controller-General, having 

 climbed from the bottom to the top of the tree ; his promotion gave universal 

 satisfaction in the Civil Service. He used to allude to his own life as an 

 illustration of the advantage of persevering steadily at one thing in spite of 

 all temporary hardships and discouragements. Always kindly and tolerant 

 with young men, he was especially ready to help them in science, and thus 

 he took great interest in the South London Entomological Society, of which 

 he was for several years President or Vice-President, from time to time 

 communicating various papers. The love of Nature was to him, he said, a 

 passion ; he thought deeply, and spoke of what he knew and loved ; so that 

 his conversation was an education and a delight. A wide circle of friends 

 will mourn his loss. 



