THE FLORA OF LEICESTERSHIRE 33 
elm, have been planted. It is thus almost impossible to indicate any single 
spot on it that could be called virgin forest, so greatly has it suffered at 
the hands of the woodman and his axe in the long distant past. 
Note.—The Flora of Leicestershive and Rutland, by A. R. Horwood and the late 3rd 
Earl of Gainsborough, will be published by the Oxford University Press before the 
Leicester Meeting of the Association. Price £1 15s. With 2 maps, portraits, and 
botanical photographs. 
IV. 
THE ZOOLOGY OF LEICESTERSHIRE 
BY 
E. E. LOWE, B.Sc., Ph.D. (Director, LkEIcESTER MuszEuUM AND ART 
Ga.LLery), W. E. MAYES, R. WAGSTAFFE, anv S. O. TAYLOR, 
General—Published accounts—Mammals—Birds—Reptiles and Batrachia— 
Fishes—Freshwater Invertebrate Fauna—Protozoa—Porifera and Ccelen- 
terata — Platyhelminthes — Rotifera — Annelida — Crustacea — Insecta — 
Coleoptera—Diptera—Hymenoptera Aculeata. 
LEICESTERSHIRE possesses no geological or geographical features so 
remarkable and extensive as to produce a striking or peculiar fauna. 
Charnwood Forest is, of course, from a geological point of view unique, 
and is the home of several interesting species of insects (Coleoptera) 
which are apparently survivals from earlier conditions, but the area of 
the forest is now so restricted and so cut up that it offers no other faunal 
peculiarities. It is a matter for congratulation, however, that in Bradgate 
Park, on the south-eastern edge of the forest, an area of about nine hundred 
acres presented to the city and county by the late Mr. Charles Bennion in 
1928, certain portions have been reserved from public use and will no 
doubt in time produce interesting records. 
There are two available accounts of the Leicestershire fauna : (1) that 
published in the Victoria County History : Leicestershire, in 1907 ; and 
(2) that compiled by Mr. A. R. Horwood for the handbook Leicester and 
Neighbourhood, issued to the members of the British Association on its 
first visit to Leicester in the same year. Both are admittedly very incom- 
plete except in regard to such familiar groups as the birds, butterflies, 
moths and beetles. Many additional records have been made since the 
publication of these accounts, chiefly by members of the Leicester 
Museum staff and by workers in the ranks of the Leicester Literary and 
Philosophical Society, and some of these records are mentioned below. 
The brief notes on various groups which follow have been kindly contri- 
buted by Mr. W. E. Mayes (Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Batrachia and Fish), 
Mr. R. Wagstaffe (Freshwater Invertebrates), and Mr. S. O. Taylor 
(Coleoptera). 
Cc 
