86 



VIII. On the Formation of a Local Museum. 



By J. E. Haeting, F.L.S., F.Z.S., Member of the British 



Ornithologists' Union. 



[Read May 28th, 1881.] 



It was observed by one of the most fascinating of Enghsh 

 writers on local Natural History, that if the natural produc- 

 tions of every district had their local historian, our know- 

 ledge of the fauna and flora of this country would become 

 more perfect than by any other means ; and every one knows 

 how agreeably and how perfectly the author of that sentiment 

 carried it into practice. 



Living in a remote village in Hampshire, before the days 

 of ]-ailways, with few neighbours of education to exchange 

 ideas with, and but few books of reference on his favourite 

 subject (for few then existed), he was thrown almost entirely 

 on his own resources ; and yet he found abundant occupation 

 for many years in examining the productions of his own 

 parish, and in collecting materials for those agreeable 

 Letters on Natural History which have fortunately been pre- 

 served to us, and with which every one is, or ought to be, 

 familiar. As an English classic, every student should read 

 Gilbert White's ' Natural History of Selborne,' and it Avill be 

 surprising if he be not first attracted, soon amused, then 

 deeply interested, and finally filled with a curiosity and 

 longing to observe and examine for himself some of the many 

 remarkable things in nature which are therein only partly 

 unfolded. 



If it be true that a poet is born, not made, the same cannot 

 be said of the local natural historian. His occupation is not 

 to conceive beautiful ideas and clothe them with equally 

 beautiful words ; but to arrive at great scientific truths by a 

 course of patient and careful investigation, and the judicious 

 collecting of natural objects illustrative of such truths. 



