KIRBY, THE REV. WILLIAM, one of the most distinguished naturalists of his day, and celebrated for his knowledge of entomology. He was the grandson of John Kirby. a miller at Wickham Market in Suffolk, and the author of the 'Suffolk Traveller,' which was pub liaised in 1785, and was a work of great repute in its day. Joshua Kirby, a brother of the father of the subject of our present notice, WA IS the friend of Gaineborough the artist, and distinguished as an architectural draughtsman, and the author of a work on Perspective. William Kirby, his father, was a solicitor, and lived at Witneaham Hall, where the entomologist was born, on September 19th 1759. His mother, whose name was Meadows, of • family of some consideration in the county of Suffolk, early gave him a taste for the study of natural history. A collection of shells, and the plants of the fields, were the first objects to which his attention was directed. His natural history studies were however interrupted by his being sent to the grammar school at Ipswich, where it appears he did not distinguish himself. From thence he was entered at Caiue College, Cambridge. Here again he failed to distinguish himself, for Cambridge had at that time no honours for those whose tastes led them to cultivate the natural sciences. He took his degree of B.A. in 1781; and having entered upon holy orders, was appointed shortly after to the cure of Barham, in his native county. In 1784 he married Miss Ripley of Debonbam. At this time he became acquainted with the Rev. Mr. Jones of Nay land, whose writings on controversial divinity were highly estimated. Mr. Kirby had however no taste for polemics, and although he never neglected the duties of his office for the pursuit of natural history, his taste for the latter became so decided, that he published very little on subjects directly connected with his profession as a clergyman.
Left to the natural bent of his genius, and surrounded with objects of natural history, his early love of plants was rekindled, and he cul tivated a knowledge of the plants of his neighbourhood. An aocident drew his attention to insects. "About half a century since," ho says in a letter to a friend in 1835, "observing accidentally one morning a very beautiful golden bug creeping on the sill of ray window, I took it up to cumin.' it, and finding that its wings were of a more yellow hoe than was oommon to my observation of these insects before. I was anxious carefully to examine any other of its peculiarities, and finding that It had twenty-two beautiful clear black spots upon its back, my captured animal was imprisoned in a bottle of gin, for the purpose, as I supposed, of killing him. Oh the following morning, anxious to pursue my observation, I took it again from the gin and laid it on the window-sill to dry, thinking it dead, but the warmth of the ?un very soon revived it; and hence commented my farther pursuit of this branch of natural history." These facts were communicated to Dr.
Gwyn of Ipswich, who was a good naturalist, and led him to recom mend to his young friend the pursuit of entomology. So diligent was Kirby in the pursuit of his new science, that we find him warmly taking up the cause of patural history science, and becoming one of the first members of the Linntcan Society, founded by Sir James Edward Smith in 1788. In 1793 he contributed his first paper to the Liunmau Society. It was entitled ' A description of three new species of Ilitudo,' and was published in the second volume of the' Triton°. Cone' His next paper, which was published in the third volume of the same 'Transactions,' was 'A History of three species of amide.' In the same volume is a 'Letter to Mr. Marsham, containing observa tions on the Insects that infested the Corn in the year 1795.' Ile became early alive to the importance of making the pursuit of ento mology of practical value, and paid particular attention to those inflects which attacked wheat and other plants of importance to man. Tho last paper was followed by others on the Tipula Tritici,' on Insects that prey upon Timber f and in the fifth volume of the Lineman Transactions' is a paper entitled 'Observations upon certain Fungi which are parasites of the Wheat.' These and other papers indicate great accuracy of observation, and prepared him for a work of higher and more important scientific interest. The family of Hymenoptera, including the bees and wasps, had been but imperfectly studied in this country, and he devoted himself to the production of a separate and complete work on English Bees. This work was published at I pawl& in two volumes, with plates, in 1802, and was entitled Monographic Apum Anglite, or an attempt to divide into the natural genera and families such species of the Lionman genus Apie as have been dis covered in England, with descriptions and observations.' This work embraced also general remarks on the class Hymenoptera, and a table of the nomenclature of the external parte of theme insects. The publication of this work at once gave him a high positiou amongst the naturalists of Europe, and brought him into correspondence with Fabrichia, Latreille, and other uaturalista on the continent of Europe, as well as all the more eminent naturalists of his own country. This work was followed up by several papers, containing important additions to the literature of entomology, but was perhaps surpassed in sclentiflo interest by his discovery of the genus &pops, which he indicated as the type of a new order of insects, to which he gave the name Strep siptera. These insects were found parasitical during their larva state in the bodies of bees, and the novelty of their history and beautiful forma excited a lively interest in the entomological world.