NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY 
13 
was still kept up. It was, however, in January, 1887, that I dis¬ 
covered two very near entomological neighbours, the Messrs. Black¬ 
burn. We soon became Intimate friends, and their proximity and 
ardour as collectors caused them to dominate entirely my entomo¬ 
logical life for several years. At about the same time Trovey Black- 
more’s health began to fail seriously. 
Under the influence of Thomas Blackburn I began to collect 
beetles enthusiastically, but after a very few weeks found that it was 
not compatible with the ordinary school work, supplemented as this 
was by special preparation for Oxford. At about this time a letter 
appeared in The Meteor purporting to come from the pen of a 
neglected specimen in a small collection of insects in the Arnold 
Library, and signed “ Mouldy Bug.” My school-fellows at once 
decided that I was the author, and for the next year or so I was 
generally called “Mouldy Bug,” or simply “Mouldy.” The true 
author was, I believe, Mr. Arthur Sidgwick, one of the masters, and 
doubtless he thoroughly enjoyed the wrongly imputed authorship. 
The Marlborough College Natural History Society (founded 
April 9th, 1864, by the Rev. T. A. Preston) had proved a great 
success, and was followed little more than a year later by the 
Harrow School Natural History Society. Mr. Wilson one day 
asked me to breakfast to meet the Rev. F. W. Farrar, then a Harrow 
master, the founder and life and soul of the latter society. As a 
result, the Rugby School Natural History Society was founded on 
March 23rd, 1867. Mr. F. E. Kitchener was the first President, the 
writer the first Honorary Secretary, and of the seven original ordinary 
members the most notable is the great hunter, Mr. F. C. Selous. 
At the first ordinary meeting the Honorary Secretary read a paper on 
“Insects: their Collection and Preservation,” causing some amuse¬ 
ment by producing from various pockets, like a conjuror, a complete 
entomological armamentarium. About a year later he compiled for 
the first volume of the Transactions a “List of the Lepidoptera 
(Butterflies and Moths) which have been observed within 8 miles 
of Rugby.” It was a mere list of Latin names, without comments, 
and included Micros. A posthumous paper “ On Caterpillars ” was 
read after the author had entered the ranks of the Old Rugbeians. 
In the Society’s “ Entomological Album ” will be found a note by 
the same hand on the larvae of four species of TJupithecia , which, 
while very similar in shape and markings, strikingly resemble in 
colour their very different food-plants, Heather, Ragwort, Angelica, 
and Wild Carrot. The larvae of this genus had at this time a great 
fascination for me. 
