684 REPORT — 1901. 



our own doors, and for tliis reason alone, thougli there are many others equally 

 ATeighty, the compilation of our own local faunas is most desirable. 



The scheme proposed ' consists in the formation by natural history societies 

 of card or slip catalogues of species on a similar plan to the library catalogues 

 first derised in the United States. To facilitate reference each card would be 

 filled in on a uniform plan with the name of genus and species say at the top 

 left-hand corner, and columns or spaces for locality, date of capture, recorder, 

 means used to identify the specimens, remarks, in foct any data considered desir- 

 able. The number of cards or slips assigned to each species need not be limited, 

 but would depend on the number of localities and other details thought necessary 

 to be recorded. The slips might vary in colour to indicate which entries are taken 

 from literature and which are due to personal observation, to denote extinct species 

 or those of economic importance, or to make any useful distinction. The slips would 

 he arranged on files on a definite system and with the use of the well-known 

 devices for dividing into groups. 



An extremely desirable feature of the scheme would be that each slip should 

 be represented and the species authenticated by a specimen in the local natural 

 history museum. The slip could easily bear a reference to the particular specimen 

 in the collection, and as the catalogue became filled up it might be placed in 

 some local public institution where it could at any time be utilised by natu- 

 ralists. 



In this manner all the information collected by the members of local societies 

 could be brought together, from whatever source obtained ; and there is no reason 

 why the fauna of a given district should not in course of time be completed in the 

 same sense as the British flora of flowering plants has been completed. 



The district need not necessarily supply the specialists for all the groups of 

 animals. Specialists at a distance would in many cases be pleased to work out 

 collections carefully furnished with localities, &c., and thus supply the data for 

 filling up slips. 



This scheme not only allows of the widest co-operation by bringing to a focus 

 both the results of systematic work and that of a more desultory nature, but also 

 favours the co-ordination of faunistic observation, since overlapping of work 

 would at once become apparent, and the gaps caused by neglect of certain groups 

 of animals would declare themselves, and thus attention and interest in filling up 

 the deficiencies would be invited. 



Another advantage is the fact that the scheme can be started at any time by 

 filling up any number of slips, however small, and that then all additions whether 

 made singly or in quantity will at once find their proper places and by accumula- 

 tion eventually bring the list nearer and nearer to completion. 



The present time is ripe for the commencement of this work. There seems to be 

 no reason Avhy it should be deferred, and a strong argument in favour of the asser- 

 tion is given by so highly competent a body of naturalists, the German zoologists, 

 having committed themselves, and no doubt wisely, to that great undertaking 

 'DasTierreich.' 



It is, I think, desirable to consider whether some body of English naturalists 

 with the necessary authority, say the Committee of the Conference of Delegates to 

 the British Association, should not see to it that the local Natural History Societies 

 of the United Kingdom adopt some such plan of record upon one and the same 

 system, Such a body of naturalists could draw up the most generally convenient 

 and useful form of slip and impress upon the Societies the value of cataloguing by 

 its use in a uniform manner the fauna of the whole country. Having the method 

 provided would perhaps encourage some societies to take up the work. 



Political divisions and areas surrounding large towns are not often of zoological 

 value. The results obtained by this larger scheme would eventually have to be 

 rearranged according to the natural features of the country. By making the slips 

 all uniform the final rearrangement would be enormously facilitated, if not 

 reduced to the minimum of labour. 



' First suggested by myself to the Cambridge Entomological and Natural History 

 Society in a paper read on April 26, 1901. 



