i9oi' CarpknTKR. — Dublin Museum and Irish Naturalists. 159 



illustrate as far as possible the fauiia of the whole island. No 

 smaller area will suffice, and this should establish a bond 

 between the Museum and naturalists throughout the country. 



It is well that the hall of our Museum which houses the 

 exhibition collection of Irish animals should house also a 

 small series illustrating the fauna of each of the great zoological 

 regions of the earth. For study of Irish animals will be barren 

 unless the facts presented to us are read in the light of the 

 study of Geographical Distribution generally. Fspecial care 

 has therefore been bestowed on a case showing some of the 

 generalisations to which a study of the Irish Fauna seems to 

 lead us — the mingling in Ireland of an ancient South-western 

 with a less ancient Northern fauna, together with the absence 

 from Ireland of the Eastern group of animals characteristic of 

 the British lowlands. 



The exhibition Irish collections will, it is hoped, some day 

 contain a representative of every kind of animal inhabiting 

 the country. It does not need much study of the collection to 

 see, at present, how far from realization this ideal is. And 

 now we come to see how naturalists throughout the country 

 can help their national Museum. L,et them take up and study 

 some of the neglected groups of Irish animals. For example, 

 the Mites, the smaller Hymenoptera and Diptera, several 

 orders of the lower Crustacea and many of the Worms are 

 waiting for investigators, and it may be years before any of the 

 professional zoologists in the country can turn their attention 

 to these groups. 



But the visit which this Conference has paid to the Museum 

 has shown the members that in those groups of animals which 

 have received some attention, the specimens exhibited form 

 but a very small proportion of those stored in cabinets for 

 study and comparison. These study collections form the bulk 

 of the Museum's wealth, and for the detailed work which will 

 surely be some day undertaken on the better-known groups of 

 Irish animals, such collections can hardly be too rich. At 

 first sight these collections seem to benefit the naturalists 

 resident in or near Dublin to the exclusion of dwellers in 

 Ulster, Connaught, or Munster. But, as a matter of fact, 

 workers in distant parts of Ireland can and do receive help 

 from the Museum specimens. Much time is spent by the 



