1880. | Scientific News. 229 
domyia and allied genera, but have suffered seriously from the in- 
roads of Ptinus fur, which we caught in the act of demolition. 
An extensive collection of duplicates, including about one hun- 
dred thousand Coleoptera, and perhaps twenty-five thousand of all 
other orders, have been invaded by Dermestes /ardarius and injured 
to an extent not exceeding twenty per cent. These are contained 
in two pine cases, each containing about thirty-six slides or rim- , 
less drawers, in which the pins are feebly secured by slits or incis- 
ions in the wood. There are no traces of Anthrenus or Tinea, and 
little if any of the more minute museum pests in any part of the 
collection. 
One hundred and forty-eight small thick note-books contain in 
fine MSS., the locality, date of capture, &c., of nearly every speci- 
men; their numbers reaching fifty-five thousand ; the record com- 
mencing about the year 1833. Each species is accompanied by a 
brief diagnosis, followed on a subsequent page by a fuller descrip- 
tion with notes and observations. The whole forming an almost 
exhaustive descriptive catalogue of the collection of inestimable 
value and which should of course never be separated therefrom. 
Several microscopes, among them a valuable upright Nachet with 
all accessories, made expressly for the doctor, only a few years 
ago, and a large and valuable library containing many rare and 
Curious as well as unique works on entomological subjects are 
also stored in the small wooden building known as the “ Office,” 
a few rods in the rear of the hundred-year old homestead or dwel- 
ling-house. 
An extensive collection of minerals, as well as a few specimens 
of local birds and mammals and a good alcoholic collection of the 
Washington county reptiles and fishes also attest the labors of 
the eminent naturalist. 
_ — It is with sincere regret that we record the death, on Janu- 
ary 23d, of Dr. Thomas M. Brewer, the distinguished ornitholo- 
gist, whose geniality and courtesy won him friends all over 
thè country, and whose labors as a naturalist entitléd him to the 
Warm regard of all lovers of nature. Dr. Brewer paid, as is well 
known, Special attention to the study of the habits, nests and eggs 
of birds ; publishing an elaborate and beautifully illustrated trea- 
tise on the eggs of birds; he supplied this part to Baird, Brewer 
and Ridgway’s great book on the birds of the United States. 
_ Ur. Brewer was born November 21, 1814, graduated at Har- 
vard in 1835, and began the practice of medicine three years 
later. He was one of the oldest and most active of the working 
members of the Boston Society of Natural History; had just 
completed a catalogue of the large collection of humming birds 
of the Boston Society, in whose Proceedings most of his papers 
“ppeared, and had almost completed the collection of New 
_ England birds, which he had been at work upon for se 
