MIDLAND UNION OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. 183 



The collections of Natural History objects, photographic and general 

 scientific exhibits, occupied the Town Hall, and in the Sessions Court 

 opposite was some acoustic apparatus. The Council Chamber was 

 occupied by microscopes. In an adjacent room Mr. M. H. Holding 

 exhibited, and humourously lectured on, Balmain's luminous paint, 

 kindly lent for exhibition by Messrs. Ihlee and Home. Along a corridor 

 close by, the walls were covered with a fine collection of engravings, 

 principally by Bartolozzi— collected by a committee, of which the Rev. 

 J. Cunningham and Mr. J. B. Hensman acted as secretaries. The 

 arrangement of the engravings was undertaken by Mr. H. J. Atkins. 



The engravings were so numerous that room for a goodly number 

 had to be found in the Town Museum, to which the corridor led, while on 

 a screen at the lower end were some sketch paintings from nature by the 

 late Mr. J. G. de Wilde, long known and much respected by the inhabitants 

 of Northampton and neighbourhood as the editor of the Northampton 

 Mercury. In the Museum the geological visitors enjoyed a rich treat in 

 viewing the collection of fossils which were collected by a former Marquis 

 of Northampton, and presented to the Northampton Museum by the 

 late Marquis ; also the collection made by Mr. Samuel Sharpe, F.G.S. 

 Mr. William Hull, the Secretary of the Geological Section of the North- 

 ampton Society, was in attendance, and courteously gave information 

 respecting the fossils to those who desired it. 



Professor Etheridge reports of the Marquis of Northampton's 

 collection of fossils : — " This collection, almost unrivalled in value and 

 in perfection of specimens, is scarcely equalled in the kingdom. . . . 

 I must specially notice the Cretaceous series, which is truly valuable 

 and fine, many of the specimens being unique ; also the Solenhofen or 

 Lithographic Slate series, the Oxford Clay Cephalopoda, and the fine 

 series of Devonian Corals, unequalled in any museum." The collection 

 is rendered more valuable to students from the fact that with a few 

 exceptions they are all British specimens. 



In the Curator's Room Mr. T. P. Dorman exhibited in the 

 oxyhydrogen microscope a number of microscopic objects. 



Of the varied exhibits, the very fine collection of Birds' Skins 

 exhibited by Lord Lilford, and presented by him to the Northampton 

 Natural History Society, must be first mentioned. They number 137 

 specimens, representing 72 species. Some of the rarer specimens were 

 described by Lord Lilford in the " Midland Naturalist " of last month 

 (see page 163.) Mr. West exhibited a case of Northamptonshire Birds, 

 most of which are now rare ; Mr. F. Law Birds' Skulls ; and the Rev. 

 G. Nicholson British Birds' Eggs, representing 270 species. Sir 

 Herewald Wake, Bart., also exhibited British Birds' Eggs. In 

 Entomology, the Rev. L. H. Lloyd had two cases of Butterflies ; Mr. 

 Truss a collection of Northants Lepidoptera ; and the Rev. G. Nicholson 

 a collection 'of British Butterflies, representing 49 of the 64 known 

 British species. In Botany, Mr. S. Law showed a collection of Northants 

 ferns; Mr. H. F. Devis (Birmingham) some rare plants, including 

 Hclianthemum polifolium, Fumaria muralis, &c. ; and Mr. T. Bolton 



