74 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



Lepidoptera was most full and complete. For more than forty years he has 

 been a hard working Lopidopterist, giving during the greater part of this 

 time, special attention to the smaller species. 



John Sang was brought up a draper, and succeeded to his father's business 

 in the High Eow, Darlington, which he followed energetically, (as he did 

 everything he had to do), for about twenty years ; then having realized a com- 

 petency, he retired, and gave nearly all his time to his favourite pursuits. 

 Some five or six years ago, he had the misfortune to lose not only the greater 

 part of his savings, but he was obliged to sell his collection to relieve himself 

 from a liability he had incurred by becoming security for a friend. Thus at 

 one stroke losing not only his independency, but his dearly loved insects, the 

 result of so many years labour, and many of which, rare or now extinct species, 

 it was not possible to replace. To an ordinary man this would have been a 

 fatal blow, but John Sang accepted the inevitable with the greatest equanimity, 

 sought and found work he was well qualified to do, and commenced when he 

 was over fifty years of age to form a new collection. Among his entomo- 

 logical effects was one that attracted particular attention, and that ultimately 

 realized a large sum. This was a copy of Stainton's well known Manual, 

 illustrated by coloured figures by himself. These b'fe-size figures of the whole 

 of the British Tinea, are to-day the most valuable set of figures in existence. 

 His ability to depict minute objects with absolute fidelity becoming known, 

 he was ultimately engaged by Dr. Mason, of Burton-on-Trent, to paint fig- 

 ures of Coleoptera. These figures are perfect marvels of painstaking, con- 

 scientious work, not to be surpassed and scarcely to be equalled. Every 

 puncture, even of the most minute species, is absolutely depicted in the draw- 

 ings. At the time of his death he had figured nearly all the Brachylytra, 

 being then engaged with the ffomaliida. Had he been spared but a few 

 weeks longer he would have completed this large and difficult group. 



His knowledge of British Lepidoptera has been mentioned. It was indeed 

 most full and complete. Species that had been seldom taken he knew all 

 about ; where and when the examples had been met with, and in whose pos- 

 session they were. His knowledge of the larvae and their food was equally 

 great. To his acquaintance with the correct food of Mniophila cineraria 

 we are indebted to the detection of an attempted swindle. Bred specimens 

 were offered for sale, from larvae said to have been found on trees in the New 

 Forest. " Nothing of the kind," said he, in his rather abrupt and unhesi- 

 tating manner, "the larva feeds on wall lichens, not tree lichens at all." 

 This of a species that only once had been recorded as British, and of which 

 most collectors had no knowledge at all. So, too, his intimate acquaintance 

 with the forms of all British species, enabled him to pronounce with certainty 



