THE BRITISH NATURALIST. [December 



a boy of twelve, where he recognised some of the insects depicted, 

 and upon sallying out he found dyccena avgiohis literally swarming, 

 which he duly skewered with the pins known as " short whites," 

 recommended by that lady as the most suitable for insects. He says, 

 that from that time he collected as opportunities offered, but for about 

 ten years with no regular system. This can scarcely have been the 

 case however, for we have now lying before us his dairy of the year 

 1863, which is not only packed with entries of captures and exchanges, 

 but which shovvs a systematically kept entomological cash account, 

 with the items paid for insects, excursions, and even postage of 

 individual letters and boxes, so that he must have devoted much time 

 to the study even at that date. 



It was not long before his keen eye for detecting the minute 

 differences betw^een allied species, made itself felt, and he became 

 associated with the staff of " Young England," writing for that 

 periodical, the opening pages of what was intended to be an 

 Illustrated History of our British Moths, the space, however, at his 

 disposal was not sufficient for this to have proved a satisfactory work, 

 and a change of proprietors led to it being discontinued. NVe believe 

 the articles upon British Lepidoptera in the Annuals, signed by Dr. 

 Knaggs, were also partly suggested by him, but otherwise, little 

 entomological work proceeded from his pen, and the species intro- 

 duced by him as new to our lists, have unfortunately failed to 

 maintain their ground. It is, however, only fair to his memory to 

 mention that he never himself believed that either Horn, saxicola, or 

 Eiip. thuleana, were true species, although described by him as such^ 

 upon the strenuous representations of others ; whilst Hoin. senecionis, 

 of wliich he discovered the life history, had a prior continental name 

 and pvyerelln is but an albino variety oi cevatonicB. These slight accidents 

 of fate, perhaps served to deter him from venturing further upon 

 nomenclature, but for years he advocated that the bone coloured 

 Cnephasia of our salt marhes, was perfectly distinct from the species 

 known as pevterana ; and that the Catoptria, from- Sevenoaks, dis- 

 tributed by Mr. Machin, could not possibly be the same as that in our 

 cabinets under the name of inodestana, an opinion now known to be 

 correct. He also first discovered the larva of Tanagva chcerophyllata, 

 and of several of our Noctuae. 



But it is chiefly as the pioneer m the now well worn path of local 

 forms, that Mr. Vaughan will be long remembered. Whilst others 

 thought of adding aberrations to their collections, he recognised the 

 importance of long series in cabinets, the insects to be chosen from as 

 diverse localities as possible, to enable a correct knowledge to be 

 obtained from their study ; both in this respect as well as the 



259 



