142 



'A' MR. DARWIN. 



Rev. \V. C. HEY, M.A. 



It is well known that Darwin was first attracted to the study of 

 Natural History by the Coleoptera. My grandfather, the Rev. 

 Samuel Hey (of Ockbrook), was a beetle-collector, and it thus 

 happens that in some old letters I recently looked over, I found 

 two interesting references to the father of modern science. 

 >\Iy grandfather, writing to my father (the late Archdeacon 

 Hey), on September i6th, 1S29. says : — ' Mr. Fox brought over 

 a relative of his, Mr. Darwin, to see my collection. They both 

 pronounced it a very fine collection for so small a one, and 

 discovered in it several very rare insects, and such as they had 

 never before seen. ]\Ir. Darwin, indeed both of them, were 

 captivated with the Snowdon beauties. Mr. Darwin wants to 

 know on what part of Snowdon you took the Chrysomela 

 cerealis, and on what plant, as he means to go there on purpose 

 to search for it. This he can readily do, as he lives at Shrews- 

 bur}'. He named a great many insects for me. I gave them 

 one of my three specimens of Epaphius, and he and Mr. Fox 

 were to toss up for it ! ' 



The other reference occurs in a letter to my father from an 

 aunt. She writes : — ' A Mr. Darwin has been to see your 

 father's insects.' And with rare discrimination, she adds this 

 mild praise — ' He seemed a very intelligent man.' The old 

 ladv was a Calvinist after the strait est sort. Could she have 

 dipped into the future, she w^ould not have thought it was an 

 angel she had been entertaining imawares, but — well, some- 

 thing quite different. 



Evidently our contributor, ]\Ir. T. Fetch, B.Sc, Government Mycologist 

 in Ceylon, is in his old form for work. Amongst the pamphlets recently 

 received from him may be mentioned ' Insects and Fungi ' ; from ' Science 

 Progress ' ; ' The Genus Endocalyx, Berkeley and Broome (with plate and 

 description of E. ductus n. sp.), from the Annals of Botany; and 'Die 

 Pilze von Hevea brasiliesins (Para Kautschuk) ' ; from ' Zeitschrift fiir 

 Pflanzenkrankheiten.' 



The following method of collecting aquatic coleoptera, in vogue in 

 America, may be worth trying b}^ our readers interested : — ' To collect in 

 flowing streams, a loosely-woven cloth should be stretched across and 

 through the stream, and the stones, gravel and sand overturned and 

 stirred up a short distance above it. The dislodged beetles will be swept 

 into the cloth to which they will cling for support, and it is only necessary 

 to draw up the cloth, and reap the harvest.' The writer adds that on one 

 occasion he secured 700 beetles in this manner, after stirring up about 

 two feet of sand and gravel. 



Naturalist 



