XVIU THE HANCOCK MUSEUM AND ITS HISTORY 



in increased possessions. In the first report published after 

 the opening of the new museum the committee emphasise the 

 need for a larger roll of annual subscribers, in order to "enable 

 them to complete the arrangements of the museum collections, 

 which at present the annual income of the Society will not 

 enable them to do." This was written twenty years ago, and 

 still, though much has been done in the meantime, the arrange- 

 ments referred to are uncompleted. The annual income of the 

 Society has not risen, or such slight rises as have taken place 

 in some years have been counterbalanced by losses in others ; 

 and an effort to raise capital for a substantial maintenance 

 fund produced a very small result. It has consequently never 

 been possible to employ a staff capable of dealing at all 

 adequately with the work that was needed. Although the 

 Hancock collection of birds was fitted up in a more or less 

 final manner, the rest of the museum was for the most part 

 only " roughed out," and owing to the Society's poverty most 

 of it has had to remain so. The possibilities and prospects of 

 a better state of things will be spoken of in the final article. 



It will be seen, then, that the satisfaction of the Natural 

 History Society in the great possession which it secured 

 twenty-three years ago has not been without its clouds. But 

 one feature at least of the period which has elapsed since the 

 opening of the new museum has been gratifying in the 

 extreme; many most important gifts have been received, so 

 that the collections have largely increased in value. It will 

 only be possible here to mention a few of the largest of these 

 gifts. Mr. Fredc. Raine, formerly of Durham, has provided 

 the Society with admirable collections of British birds' eggs, 

 British butterflies and moths, and Continental butterflies, all 

 very great acquisitions, and marked, like everything that Mr. 

 Raine undertakes, by thoroughness and exquisite workman- 

 ship. Col. Adamson, in addition to other gifts, has presented 

 his fine collection of the butterflies of Burma, the result of 

 thirty years' work in that country. A collection of local 

 Diptera or two-winged flies, formed and presented by the 

 Rev. W. J. Wingate, of Bishop Auckland, is of particular 



