224 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



contained some insects, though — whether Britishers caught in the 

 building or exotics acquired from the Himalayas and Brazil — 

 unnamed. We have not heard that our note to the ' Yorkshire 

 Post' has effected amelioration. In the Eastern Counties things 

 are but little better and, with the exception of the fine exhibits 

 at Cambridge, nothing but Lepidoptera and Coleoptera are to be 

 found. The Rev. J. H. Hocking and Mr. Skepper presented the 

 former, respectively, to Ipswich and Bury St. Edmunds ; the 

 collection of the latter at Ipswich was purchased some years ago, 

 and we had the pleasure of presenting the Bury lot. Norwich 

 possesses a comprehensive show of beetles (the collection of old 

 Robert Scales, the friend of William Kirby, we believe) and the 

 magnificent parasitic and aculeate Hymenoptera amassed by 

 John Bridgman during the "eighties." Colchester and Lowestoft 

 lag, and Yarmouth's quaint museum boasts few insects. 



Students of local distribution would do well to investigate the 

 often neglected contents of all our local museums (those of the 

 Isle of Wight Museum at Newport were in a deplorable condition 

 when we last saw them). The task should not be onerous ; 

 specialists are more numerous now than twenty years ago. 

 Local entomologists, though rarely the Curators themselves, 

 would be competent to report adequately upon the extent and 

 condition of their own orders. These should be tabulated 

 against the name of each museum, and a Regular Register kept 

 by a Standing Committee of recorders, to whom local authorities 

 would find it to their own advantage to notify the more important 

 accessions. Thus geographical distributiouists would find a 

 wide and hitherto almost unexplored field for investigation, 

 which would add considerably to the perfection of local cata- 

 logues. Scientifically it is conceded by all (but the institutions 

 themselves) to be useless for provincial museums to store up any 

 but local exhibits — types should go to the National Collection — 

 and it is quite certainly in working out the productions of their 

 own county, or peculiar geological formation, that these museums 

 in the future will most materially assist the general scientist. 



C. M. 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Hybernation (?) op Pyrameis atalanta. — -The references in this 

 month's 'Entomologist' to the hybernation of Pyrameis atalanta 

 remind me that I received, on January 14th last, a lively example, 

 which had been rescued from a dog belonging to Mr. Morris, of 

 Leigh-on-Sea. Where the dog found the butterfly is not known, 

 but, considering the rough treatment the latter must have received, 

 its condition was surprisingly good. — F. G. Whittle ; 7, Marine 

 Avenue, Southend, May 7th, 1911. 



