2 
With the view of continuing the good work carried on for so 
many years by Mr. Blomefield, the following notes are brought 
together as to the contents of the Duncan Local Museum, and by 
comparison with other local lists the strong points of the 
collection are brought out and the weak points can be seen, and 
it is to be hoped remedied. 
Whilst, however, the desirability is here suggested of obtaining 
as complete a series as possible of the fauna of the district, a 
protest must at the same time be made against the indiscriminate 
and interminable slaughter of rare specimens. So long as every 
rare bird or animal is shot at or trapped, so long will it be the 
constant lament of the naturalist that more and more species are 
becoming extinct in our land. The two ideas are not incompat- 
ible, for the observations of the naturalist do not as a rule 
necessitate the destruction of life, rather they require the patient 
observance of the ways and habits of life, after the fashion of 
Gilbert White, of Selborne, and of Charles Darwin. 
The fact that these notes were only put together as an attempt 
at forming a regular catalogue for the Duncan Local Museum, 
must be my excuse for their appearing very much in catalogue 
form. It is difficult to decide on what the limit of distance for 
a local collection should be, for whilst the radius taken by Terry, 
in his local lists of Bath fauna, extends only a little over 
six miles, there are specimens in the museum embracing a 
radius of twenty-five miles, extending as far as Weston-super- 
Mare on one side and Cliffe Pypard in Wiltshire on another. 
The majority of specimens, however, were taken within a radius 
of ten miles, and probably it will be best to keep to this. 
MAMMALIA. 
This is necessarily a small collection, but fairly representative 
of the district. 
1.—CHEIROPTERA. 
There is a very good collection of Bats, seven species being 
