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are in funds, we may enlarge our borders, and buy specimens of 
foreign creatures, which, bright and beautiful as they may be, will 
never, I venture to say, interest us half as much as those humbler 
denizens of our own county, endeared to us by a thousand pleasant 
recollections—in each one of which we have grown to feel a sort 
of kindly proprietorship. There are already here a good number 
of specimens of British birds; more than that—County birds— 
which only require a little careful handling and re-setting, to form 
a fair beginning. If practicable, I should like to see the English 
and Latin names of each family painted in plain letters—black, in 
the inside of each family case, and the individual name of each 
member of such family so painted upon each perch respectively 
occupied. The system of naming I would suggest is that followed 
by Bewick: so very simple—giving the family name in English as 
we will say of “The Wagtail,” the ‘Pied Wagtail” member of that 
family. 
We should avoid all decoration of the cases in the inside with 
grasses, flowers, or the like, but attempt to give each bird its most 
distinctive attitude. The Kingfisher, for instance, with open wings, 
head downwards, ready for his rapid plunge. I wonder if there are 
any of these beautiful birds still to be found on the Petteril side? 
I have seen them there when I was a boy. And in those happy 
days I have met both with the Whin Chat and the Stone Chat 
-on Wragmire Moss edges and on Blaze Fell road. 
Yet once more. A County Museum would be incomplete 
without a collection of all the Plants indigenous to the county ; 
and the more active minds we can enlist to help us in our general 
scope the better. No doubt many who care not for birds and 
beasts, make Botany their study; and the Ferns alone in this 
county would make a beautiful collection. Secure their aid. 
With the County birds fairly ranged and classified by themselves; 
with the British birds in general so classified also, so that at a 
glance may be seen in what members of each family the County 
is deficient ; with a few bright cases of Foreign birds perhaps, as 
an ornament ; with the valuable collection of Antiquities already 
acquired ; with a complete Hortus Siccus of the County—with its 
