373 



Local Biology, followed by remarks on the Faunas of Bath and 

 Somerset. By tlie Rev. Leonard Blomepield, M.A., F.L.S., 

 F.G.S., &c., President. Read November IZth, 1872. 



Local Natural History, rightly studied, is a very different thing 

 in these days from what it was formerly. If we look to the older 

 works on the Natural Histoiy of these Islands published towards 

 the end of the 17th century, such as those of Boate *, Childrey t, 

 Merrett J, and Sibbald §, we either find Natui-al History, in the 

 ordinary sense of the word, largely mixed up with Topography ; and 

 only notice taken of those objects which attract by their rarity or 

 ciu-iosity ; or, as in the case of Merrett, who confines himself more 

 to the subject, little more than a bare list of species of animals and 

 plants without reference to their characters and habits, though still 

 valuable from the localises in ,4hich they are to be found being 

 added in many instahcJJS^'' Coming down to a later period we find 

 in Berkenhout 1 1 and". -Pennant IT mere information on the subject, 

 the latter being the fii-st ..author 'who treats of British Zoology, 

 detached from all other branches of Natural History ; though as 

 in the case of Bewick, who followed only a few years after — his 

 work is more of a popular than a scientific character. 



From the time of Bewick downwards, able and accurate works have 

 been wn-itten by Montagu, Selby, Bell, Yarrell, Curtis, Stephens, 

 and inany others on the Birds, Quadrupeds, Fishes, Reptiles, 

 Shells, and Insects of this country, — but in few of these works do 

 we find more than an endeavoui- to ascertain in the first instance 

 what species in each class are natives, or occasional visitants, of 

 Great Britain and Ireland, and then to give full descriptions of 

 the several species as regards their external characters, adding what 

 is known of their haunts and habits, along with any particular facts 

 that give an interest to their history. 



• Ireland's If atural History, by Gerard Boate, 16-32. t Britannia 



Baconica, or the Natural Rarities of every Shii-e of England, Scotland, and 

 Wales, by S. Childrey, 1662. % Pinax Eerum NaturaHum Britannicarum, 



by Christopher Merrett, 1667. k Scotia lUustmta, 1684. || Synopsis 



of the Natural History of Great Britain and Ireland, by John Berkenhout, 

 1789. H British Zoology, by Thomas Pennant, 1776. 



Vol. II., No. 4. 



